QUEZON City 5th District Rep. Alfred Vargas urged the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture to conduct an investigation on the proliferation of erroneous self-learning materials from the Department of Education.

In filing House Resolution 1292, Vargas said the committee has the authority to probe all matters relating to pre-school, elementary and secondary education, as well as teachers’ and students’ welfare.

“Due to the challenging situation brought about by the Covid19 pandemic, the DepEd has recommended and implemented distance and blended learning education with the use of student’s self-learning modules to continue the delivery of quality and accessible education to Filipino students beginning on October 5, 2020,” Vargas said in his resolution.

The resolution cited Education Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio’s report that they received 34 screenshots of errors in modules during the first week of classes.

Among the 34 reported errors, one came from the materials produced by the DepEd Central Office, 18 were from modules developed by the regional and division offices and 15 were from undetermined sources including private schools.

This prompted DepEd to launch Error Watch, a panel tasked to receive, collate and validate reports of errors found in learning materials, television episodes and online platform DepEd commons.

“The DepEd is responsible for maintaining the quality of education in terms of reviewing the content and language of learning materials, including SLMs,” Vargas pointed out.

He said that while he supports DepEd in its efforts to make learning resources in schools undergo quality assurance and maintain the quality of education for all, it is also necessary to immediately investigate the proliferation of erroneous learning materials.