DepEd updates learning materials in public schools

To augment the available learning resources in the country’s public schools, the Department of Education (DepEd) has approved hundreds of supplementary materials to be included in their respective library collection.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones, in DepEd Order No. 35 series of 2019, announced the 2019 list of approved supplementary learning resources (SLRs) “which may be used for the provision of additional learning resources to be included in the public school library collection.”

Briones noted that the list is the “result of the evaluation” of SLRs submitted during the call for evaluation of SLRs for School Libraries and approved by the Executive Committee (ExeCom) of DepEd. The said list, composed of 3,250 SLRs, “are arranged as award-winning books, books by internationally recognized publishers, and SLRs that passed DepEd evaluation.”

SLRs, as defined by DepEd, are “storybooks, big books, fictional materials and references for general use or for specific learning areas other than textbooks.”

Briones noted that this policy was formulated to set the guidelines stipulated for the purchase of the K to 12 curriculum-compliant SLRs. “These SLRs shall augment the available learning resources in public schools,” she added.

As stated in the guidelines on the procurement of SLRs, DepEd noted that it continues to promote the “love for and habit for reading” through the institutionalization of libraries in every school. “School libraries and library hubs serve as reservoir of adequate and varied supplementary learning resources,” the agency said.

Given this, DepEd underscored the importance of making SLRs “available and accessible” to teachers and learners “in order to create a pervasive reading culture and environment in public schools.

DepEd, in the said guidelines for procuring SLRs, highlighted the need to update the learning resources in libraries as a response to the K to 12 curriculum. “Textbooks and other supplementary learning resources for public school use need to be aligned with the new curriculum,” DepEd said.

The Schools Division Office, through the Learning Resource Management Section, is directed to “conduct monitoring and check the availability of the procured SLRs in the school libraries after the delivery reports have been submitted.” The Central Office, on the other hand, will also check the “availability and utilization of the procured SLRs during the conduct of learning resource monitoring.”