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MANILA — The Department of Education (DepEd) on Thursday admitted that not all of the self-learning modules it issued for distance learning this school year underwent "quality assurance" screening, and vowed to be stricter in evaluating the materials in the future.

This, following several posts on social media pointing out errors or confusing questions on some printed materials that were allegedly from DepEd.

Education Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio said while they try "very hard" to screen everything, some erroneous items still slip through.

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"Hindi lahat ng self-learning modules... ay dumaan sa aming quality assurance sa Central Office. At kahit po yung mga dumaan sa amin, may mga nasisilip po na hindi tama. Kasama po 'yan sa mga hindi tamang pag-present ng lesson na kailangang bigyan ng pagsasaayos," San Antonio said on ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo.

(Not all self-learning modules underwent quality assurance in the Central Office. Even those that were screened contained errors. These erroneous presentation of lessons need to be addressed.)

San Antonio asked the public to first validate if the printed modules containing errors really came from DepEd, since materials from private educational institutions are beyond the department's control.

"Hindi pa rin namin completely naba-validate kung 'yung mga pages ng mga self-learning modules na 'yan ay gawa namin sa DepEd o nakita sa private sector counterpart... Wala po kaming kaalam-alam doon," he said.

(We haven't completely validated if the pages of the said self-learning modules that contained errors came from DepEd or from the private sector. We don't know.)

"Katulad noong una, kami agad inakusahan doon sa malalaswa ang salita. Di naman sa amin... Bago husgahan kung DepEd 'yan, alamin muna para kung sino'ng may pananagutan ay makapagpaliwanag," he added.

(We were accused before as being responsible for items with lewd language. That didn't come from us. Before the public blame DepEd, they should verify first its source so they could explain and we could hold them accountable.)

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The agency, he said, is already looking into the possibility of hiring more proofreaders to address the problem.

"May kinakasa kami. Nag-uusap na kami ng aming team... Pero ang pag-hire kasi ng mga tao, hindi naman madali dahil may procurement processes... Hanggang ngayon, nasa proseso pa rin 'yung mga dagdag naming tagabantay [sana] sa ganitong errors, TV lessons, at printed materials," he said.

(We are already discussing it in our team. But hiring itself is difficult because of the procurement processes. Until now, the hiring of people to guard these materials from errors is still being processed.)

According to him, some already volunteered to proofread, or offered their help to screen their modules and the lessons on DepEd TV for errors. He welcomes those who want to volunteer to help evaluate their materials.

"May mga nagbo-volunteer po kahit hindi namin sila bayaran... Kung marami pong gustong ganito, tumulong sa amin, makipag-ugnayan po sa amin," he said.

(Some already volunteered even without pay. If more people want to volunteer and help us, please coordinate with us.)

Earlier this week, DepEd's television channel drew flak from social media users after it aired the wrong solution to a math problem. In August, netizens also criticized DepEd TV for airing grammatically-incorrect sentences during its test broadcast.

• DepEd TV draws flak over error in math lesson
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In September, social media users slammed a private school self-learning module that used people's names known to be Filipino puns alluding to lewd acts.

Modular learning is only one of the components of distance or blended learning being implemented this school year since in-person classes remain suspended due to COVID-19. Students also learn through online classes, and TV- and radio-based instructions.

Some 22.5 million students in public schools in the Philippines resumed their studies on Monday.