Burat: Textbook learnings for make benefit glorious nation of Philippines

Below is the full text of the full-page ad that appeared in today’s issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The ad was placed by Antonio Calipjo Go, academic supervisor of the Marian School in Quezon City.

_{“Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else… This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to the Facts, Sir!” — Charles Dickens in Hard Times}

_{“People still retain the errors of their childhood long after they have accepted the truths needed to refute them.” — Condorcet in Progress of the Human Mind}

_{“You see my movie film BORAT, featuring cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan. You watch! You laugh! You like! HIGHFIIIVE! SEXYTIME! WAWWEEWAH!!!” — BORAT, the movie}

_{WHAT PHILIPPINE PUBLIC SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS}

_{ARE TEACHING FILIPINO PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS}

_{TITI : ARI NG LALAKI}

_{LEARNINGS FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF PHILIPPINES}

_{ANTONIO CALIPJO GO}

_{Academic Supervisor, Marian School of Quezon City}

_{On page 114 of the public school textbook titled HIYAS SA PAGBASA for Grade 5 appears this instruction: “Pag-aralan ang mga nakatalang mga salita.” ( “Study the given words.” ) Among the words asked to be examined minutely (pag-aralan) by the students are the words TITI, defined as ARI NG LALAKI (male sex organ), and TITATITA, defined as BUGAW (pimp). Were the writers of this book even thinking when they decided to include the abominable words TITI and TITATITA in a schoolbook for schoolchildren? (Borat would’ve asked: Is they crazy?) After Pepe’s pee pole, what will these good people think of next — Pilar’s pekpek (ari ng babae)?}

_{I wonder why HIYAS SA PAGBASA 5 was approved for publication at all, first, by the publisher, and second, by the INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS COUNCIL SECRETARIAT (IMCS) of the DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION (DEPED), when the mere presence of two objectionable words — TITI and TITATITA — would’ve been reason enough to reject it. Even more compelling is the presence of more than 300 errors in this 231-page textbook which is supposed to be an instructional material — a teaching tool ! For all that, HIYAS SA PAGBASA 5, approved under the Second Social Expenditure Management Project (Loan Number 7118-PH) and the Third Elementary Education Project (Loan Number 4108-PH) of the Philippine Government and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), is the one, the only, textbook used in the subject Filipino by all Grade 5 pupils of all the public elementary schools since 1999. This book shows no sign of having been written and evaluated wisely and well. Yet, it has been in use since 1999, with not one individual coming out to question its existence. ( The DEPED has just re-ordered 69,409 copies of HIYAS SA PAGBASA 5. )}

_{If I am to pay dearly for saying things I know it is my duty to God and country to say, so be it. I’ve made peace with my conscience and my God. I’m only a very small voice and this — such as it is — is the best that I can do for my country which, it seems to me, has gone irretrievably, irredeemably, to the dogs. This is to say that I can do no more, even as I have already risked all that I own, and all that I am. I may be limitless in my desires but I am restricted in all the other things needed to win the fight against substandard textbooks. I have already shown what causes the disease that’s slowly but surely killing Philippine education; others will have to find a way to cure it. Listed below are just some of the errors ( so many, it beggars the imagination ) of some of the textbooks presently being used in public schools. I regret not having the wherewithal to buy more advertising space or I’d have shown the true and full extent of the Reign of Error in Philippine textbooks, both public and private.}

_{I have identified only two books — one coming from the old batch of textbooks used in public schools, and one from the new set of approved textbooks in Social Studies to be used starting in June 2007. I did not name the others though I have shown their errors here for three reasons : to convince the public that the errors exist, that they are indeed errors, and that the books which carry these errors really do exist. I do not wish to invite the ire of more publishers by identifying them and the books they have published. You see, the four lawsuits filed against me by two authors of SD PUBLICATIONS and the publisher PHOENIX PUBLISHING HOUSE have greatly, negatively, affected me mentally, emotionally and physically. And all because I told the truth : that their books contained errors! At this point, I believe that bickering and faultfinding will not serve any purpose but to prolong the existence of these errors. I do not wish to pick a fight with anybody. I only know that if I kept this to myself, the errors that have been in these books all these years will continue to harm the hearts and minds of more generations of Filipino schoolchildren. The errors must be corrected. Now.}