The Department of Education has issued a statement in response to Lea Salonga’s reaction to a viral photo taken of a self-learning module, of which the alleged answer key raised many eyebrows among Filipinos on social media.
The module had asked whether a tattoo is a symbol for being a criminal, being a slave, being beautiful, or having low status in society. According to the photo, the correct answer was “being a criminal,” which did not sit well with the Broadway star at all.
“Okay, someone would need to tell me if this thing is really ok’d by the DepEd,” she wrote on Facebook at the time. “And if so, WHAT KIND OF BS IS THIS???”
“I am THISCLOSE to getting a tattoo, if only to prove a point,” she added. “Can someone upload a photo of the full, unedited sheet? That whole LETTER A thing covers the rest of it, and we need some context.”
Okay, someone would need to tell me if this thing is really ok’d by the DepEd. And if so, WHAT KIND OF BS IS THIS???…
Posted by Lea Salonga on Monday, November 16, 2020
Over the weekend, however, Lea shared an update regarding the issue that the correct answer was actually that tattoos are a symbol of “being beautiful” and not of “being a criminal.”
She then suggested that there was a “saboteur” who purposely misinformed the public of the correct answer “to make someone else look incompetent.”
“Covering up a big part of the page and making it look like the answer key was marking the wrong letter as correct,” she said. “For my part in this, allow me to apologize. I just want for our kids to get as good an education as they can get.”
DepEd expressed their appreciation to Lea for apologizing and for accepting their explanation of the module question. They also assured the public that they are actively dealing with these cases to prevent future errors.
(ALSO READ: ‘Aba Teka Lang’: Angel Locsin Responds to DepEd’s Apology After Being Body-Shamed)
“We are grateful that Ms. Lea Salonga acknowledged our sincere explanation, and apologized for her initial reaction regarding a Self-Learning Module (SLM) erratum that tackled a cultural topic,” they said in their statement. “The Department and Ms. Salonga are one in giving good education for our Filipino learners and in reminding the public to be wary of misinformation on module contents.”
“We hope that these incidents will remind us to always confirm module errors with concerned DepEd field offices. We assure you that the Department will take the necessary measures to revise errors found in our learning materials,” they continued.
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