How how the carabao?

"I got a butterfly with flower-designed wings."

"Ms. Vera, please entertain this computer."

"The engine of the tractor is sleeping now."

"There are times that there are invisible elements in the air."

"Put a check before the sentence with details that tell the atmosphere in the poem is truly very silent."


These are just five of over 500 sentences of a similar nature that is found in the the recently released public school textbook entitled "English for You and Me", a Reading for Grade 6 book published by Book Wise Publishing House, Inc., authored by Elodie A. Cada and get this, approved by the Department of Education (DepEd) for use by our students in public school.

What the FARK!

Dang!

When Antonio Calipjo Go, academic supervisor of Marian School of Quezon City engaged media in exposing the poor quality of textbooks being used by our public school students over a decade ago, his advocacy to improve the quality of English education would be a lonely one. And the DepEd authorities are defensive over the crusade of Mr. Go. They have issued replies to the effect that these textbooks they approved have been reviewed by experts from Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, University of Santo Tomas, and University of the Philippines. And they were approved with a few revisions.

Few? I mean, duh? Does someone have to tell these people that it doesn't take a genius or a "spell check" to figure out that the grammar and syntax are all wrong! Trees died for a cause. In this case, it was insanity drawn together by a couple of idiots who decided to connive with graft and corruption.

Someone even questioned who Mr. Go was. What were his credentials? Has he ever written something that eventually got published?

Dang! If publishing this kind of work meant being a writer, then call me crazy because even the carabao can write better.

This special report came out in the Philippine Daily Inquirer today, February 2, 2009.

Why blog about it?

To take the crusade of Mr. Go one level higher - through the internet, we can probably make a difference. Spread the news so that those in government get to realize that these textbooks are the biggest joke we have unleashed on the quality of education we provide to the Filipino people.

Oh yeah, we don't only have carabaos in the Philippines. Even our English grammar is carabao...