Textbook racket still flourishing

Government-owned textbooks are still being sold along Claro M. Recto Avenue in Manila, Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta revealed yesterday.

The Department of Education had previously cracked down on the sale of the public textbooks after Oreta, then chairman of the Senate committee on education, exposed the scam.

A staff member of Oreta dispatched to check whether public school textbooks are still being sold in Recto was able to buy three of them: Keeping Up with New Mathematics, by Corazon Villas-Tesorio, for P150 each; Fun in English by Justine Balajadia et. al, at P200 each; and a Grade II Mathematics textbook, at P150 each.

According to the vendors, the books are sold at such high prices because they are still new and have plastic covers. The caveat "Government Property, Not For Sale" was torn off the top left portion of the books.

"While the government spends hundreds of millions of pesos each year to address the textbooks shortage, syndicates have been cheating poor school children of their right to quality education," Oreta lamented.

The government-owned textbooks are supposed to be distributed for free to public school children.

Oreta expressed belief that some corrupt education officials are in cahoots with syndicates.

"Those behind this scam should be unmasked and prosecuted because this could be one of the biggest source of corruption at the Department of Education," she added. – Efren Danao