Probe ‘answer for sale’ – Gatchalian

REPORTS that some parents have resorted to hiring individuals to answer the learning modules of their children alarmed Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, prompting him to prod the Department of Education (DepEd) to launch an investigation.

The senator said the “sagot (answer) for sale” scheme would have a huge backlash on learners.

The chairman of the Senate Basic Education, Culture and Arts committee, warned parents that by engaging in this practice, they hinder their children’s learning and compromise their development.

In a recent public hearing that tackled updates on Academic Year 2020-2021, the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition revealed that some struggling parents hired someone else, to answer their children’s modules.

“Huwag naman sanang gawin ng mga magulang iyon dahil kawawa ang mga bata. Hindi natin sila natutulungang matuto sa ganyang mga paraan (I hope the parents will not do it. We cannot help them learn with this kind of scheme),” Gatchalian said.

He added that his committee will conduct another hearing to discuss the methodology of assessing learners’ performance.

Last week, the Deped claimed that 99.13 percent of the more than 14 million public school learners passed the first quarter. This excludes data from the National Capital Region, Region 7 and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Some groups have questioned the DepEd data, saying it was not factual.

The senator admitted that the scenario in Valenzuela City was different, as the performance of children was low.

Among Grade 8 learners, the average was about 48 percent across different subjects. In Grade 9, the average across different subjects was 51 percent, and 55 percent among Grade 10 learners, way below the passing rate of 75 percent.

While Gatchalian acknowledged that the DepEd’s report was based on what the regions submitted, he reiterated that there is a need for a better understanding of how learners are evaluated under the distance learning setup, which has been hounded by challenges such as the lack of interaction with teachers and reliable internet connectivity.

“I know this is challenging, but again we need to fully understand the assessment conducted by the DepEd. And we also want to see a per subject analysis because we all know that we need to help our students by looking at their weaknesses in different subject matters,” he said.