MANILA, Philippines — The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) has called out the Department of Education (DepEd) for its late delivery of self-learning modules to regions, saying it was “wasting government funds.”
In a recent statement, the ACT said it received reports that truckloads of Week 6 modules from the DepEd Central Office arrived in schools in the Ilocos region just as students were already studying Weeks 8 to 10 modules.
“There seems to be no end to DepEd’s blunders. While the agency still fails to provide for the needs of distance learning and while we hear of splurges on luxury vehicles and Christmas treats, such wastage of funds on modules that are no longer needed is just too much,” Benjamin Valbuena, ACT national spokesperson, said.
He was referring to the DepEd’s prepandemic purchase of 254 Mitsubishi Strada trucks for P370 million, supposedly for the use of its engineers in their inspection of schoolbuildings.
Earlier this month, netizens also called out the DepEd for inviting bids for the supply and delivery of ham and cheese for its Christmas celebration, just days before Typhoon “Ulysses” (international name: Vamco) left a path of destruction in Luzon.
The DepEd later announced it was canceling the holiday event, saying that it was “inappropriate at this time when our employees are severely affected by recent disasters.”
No longer serve purpose
According to Valbuena, the newly delivered modules “can no longer serve their intended purpose” as these arrived late, forcing teachers to come up with other learning materials in the meantime.
But the DepEd questioned the validity of the reports cited by ACT as it told reporters that printed modules were not being delivered from the central office since funds for printing had already been forwarded to local offices.
“Printing does not come from the central office. [The funds] are downloaded to the regions, divisions and schools …. On the surface of it, I believe this cannot be true,” Nepomuceno Malaluan, DepEd chief of staff, said at a press conference.
“It is highly implausible to say that in Region 1, the [modules] are coming in later. So what did the schools use before?” he added.
ACT explained that students had used Week 6 modules locally developed and printed by teachers and schools using their maintenance and other operating expenses, as well as donations of ink and paper.
Some teachers, it said, were forced to use their own money to pay for the printing.
ACT clarified that teachers referred to the modules as “from the [DepEd] Central Office” since these were uploaded to the central office portal, and had a different content compared to locally developed learning materials.