Instructional Materials Council MINI CRITIQUE By Isagani Cruz (The Philippine Star) | Educational Articles Updated February 19, 2015 - 12:00am There is a body in the Department “Curriculum” of Education called the Instructional Materials Council Secretariat (IMCS). According to its website, it “provides technical assistance to the Instructional Materials Council in the formulation and adoption of policies and guidelines, in the development, evaluation, and procurement of textbooks and other instructional materials.” BY: Danilo Jr. B. Patrolla Its mission is “to ensure that good Professor Danilova Lorenzo quality and reasonably priced instructional materials are made available or provided to all public elementary and secondary schools when and where they are needed.” Its vision is that there are “quality instructional did not succeed in reforming the IMCS. materials for students in public (For the short period that I was in charge elementary and secondary schools.” of IMCS, I take full responsibility.) Since it was formed, the IMCS has The problem lies not only in the been the center of various controversies persons that staff the IMCS. One can about errors in textbooks and corruption reasonably argue that IMCS is in procurement. A quick search on the understaffed, that it does not have a Web should turn up articles by Yvonne budget proportionate to its importance in Chua, Luz Rimban, Vicente Chua Reyes the country’s educational system, that it Jr., Antonio Calipjo Go, and others on sometimes does have persons whose these controversies. In 1990, even the integrity is not beyond question. But that Congressional Commission on Education is looking only at the trees and not at the (EDCOM) that was responsible for wood. setting up the trifocal system of education that we have now (DepEd, CHED, and TESDA) strongly criticized The real problem with IMCS is that IMCS for its failure to provide quality it is a secretariat that has no council. It is textbooks to public school students. supposed to serve a council, but the Instructional Materials Council (IMC), When I was Undersecretary for except for a rare meeting or two, does Programs and Projects of the DepEd not exist. (then called DECS) in 2001, I tried but The IMC was created as an This EO listed the members of the afterthought. The name first appeared in IMC, namely, the Education Secretary, 1983 in the General Appropriations Act, the Administrator of the Instructional when the Textbook Council created by Materials Development Center (now the Executive Order (EO) No. 806 in 1982 National Book Development Board), the was listed as an Instructional Materials Director of Elementary Education, the Council. That seems, to my non-lawyer’s Director of Secondary Education, and mind, a bit funny, since the IMC was not “two (2) other members to be appointed created by a law nor an EO, but merely by the President.” by a typist. The IMC was given several In 1985, the DepEd (then named powers, the most curious of which is to Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports “approve textbooks for use in private or MECS) tried to justify the renaming of elementary and secondary schools.” the Textbook Council through MECS That power given to IMC will Order No. 64. surely raise not just the eyebrows but the On 30 September 1993, then blood pressure of private school President Fidel Ramos finally issued EO administrators. Private Higher Education 127, which “revitalized the Instructional Institutions (HEIs) with academic Materials Council by redefining its freedom, which are now thinking of functions” and made it legal. establishing Senior High Schools, have yet another thing to worry about. Of course, in our country, laws are any other body, public or private, it is made to be ignored. As far as I know, this supposed merely to implement what the particular provision of EO 127 has never policy-makers decide. been implemented, but as even non- The IMCS is usurping the authority of the lawyers know, “dura lex, sed lex” (the law IMC. may be tough, but it is the law). Needless to say, as a private school administrator, I In 2005, I was asked to be one of will be the first to object to the the two appointive members of the IMC. implementation of this provision, but I will We met once (or perhaps, I was invited leave that battle for another day. only once because I was much too vocal). During that meeting, we made The most important function of decisions about some textbooks being IMC is to “select and prescribe textbook proposed for adoption in public schools. and supplementary and reference books At least during that meeting, the IMC for use in public elementary and actually did what it was supposed to do. secondary schools.” That was a decade ago. This means that the IMCS has absolutely no authority to decide on The DepEd recently issued a whether a textbook can be purchased by textbook call for learning resources for the DepEd or not. That authority resides the K to 12 curriculum. Philippine only in the IMC. The IMCS is only a publishers are now urging DepEd to lift a secretariat. Like any other secretariat of moratorium on the procurement of supplementary materials. We are, once again, getting lost in Ateneo De Manila University and later on the trees. in University of the Philippines Diliman as an Assistant Professor before he retired. We should not forget the He also serve in Far Easter University as fundamental questions. Who or what a publisher in FEU Press. exactly is authorized by law to approve textbooks and other learning materials for public schools? Who now constitute Dr. Isagani Cruz: IMCS, the IMC? What is the IMCS a secretariat ineffectiveness of? (Reflection #1) March 10, 2015 Manila- Dr. Isagani Cruz wrote an article DR. ISAGANI R. CRUZ about the ineffectiveness of Instructional Dr. Isagani Cruz is a graduate of BS Materials Council Secretariat (IMCS), a Physics in UP, and later on took M.A in body of Department of Education English Literature at Ateneo De Manila (DepEd) whose major role is to evaluate University. (1970). Laetr on he became textbooks in private especially in public known in the field of writing and awarded elementary and secondary education. the Don Carlos Palanca Award in 2004. He argued that IMCS is a dysfunctional As an Educator, he taught in De La Salle institution that is unable to perform its University, University of Santo Tomas, job. He stated that there are two problems 1) that it is understaffed and student I actually experience to use under budget and lastly 2) it does not books with typographical errors, and have a council to serve since it is a books that does not seems to be useful secretariat institution that implements (or being used by) for our teacher. That is what a “council” has decided, yet it does why most of the time, our teachers does not have any. not use the book and instead relay on their lesson plan and own examples to it is really alarming and in the same time teach a particular lesson. For me this “alarming” in the part of students, parent must be resolve since education is a and especially to educators/teachers. PRIORITY of the State and Government. Why? First, it is informative since as a This will also cause corruption on the student (I) of education and future institution (IMCS) that the students will teacher, instructional materials are very actually felt the effect, and second important to me, especially the moment I education will be in the lowest quality enter the world of teaching, it is essential since instructional materials are for me to know what body of Department important in facilitating learning. of Education (IMCS) that analyze and evaluate instructional materials (Textbooks) that are being used in elementary and secondary educations. Second, it is alarming since I learned that this body (IMCS) does not really function as how and what it should be. As a terms of their proposed SHS Program? Can a school propose new SHS tracks Senior high school and strands which are not found in the SHS Curriculum released?” MINI CRITIQUE By Isagani Cruz (The Philippine Star) | Updated February 26, 2015 - 12:00am Here is the official answer from In June 2016, Senior High School DepEd: “The guidelines on the SHS (SHS) will be compulsory for all Filipino Curriculum will detail the standards of the students leaving Grade 10. Before we said curriculum. Private schools may be praise, condemn, welcome, or fear it, we allowed to go over and beyond the should be sure to understand what standards for the specific SHS track or exactly SHS is. strand. In case applicants plan to offer other specialized programs to cater to The first thing to do is to go to the community and industry requirements, website of the Department of Education the applicant may propose new strands (www.deped.gov.ph) and search for for a specific SHS track provided that “Senior High School,” or go directly to they present other necessary SHS www.deped.gov.ph/k-to- provisions to ensure readiness of their 12/about/faq/private-senior-high-school. intended SHS.” Go to the last question on the FAQ Why am I starting an explanation page, namely, “How flexible will the of the rules about SHS by citing the private SHSs be allowed to enhance in exceptions? Because we have to look at employable), we added two years of free SHS from the correct perspective. If we public education. These two years should think of it as yet another imposition by an not have more of the same things they impersonal government bureaucracy that are supposed to learn in the first ten treats everybody the same way, we will years (11 now with compulsory miss the whole point of adding two years Kindergarten).