THE National Book Development Board has urged the Department of Education to decentralize the evaluation of textbooks for procurement to solve the problem of sub-standard textbooks in public schools.

NBDB chair Dennis Gonzalez said a decentralized textbook evaluation would go a long way in addressing the problem instead of the Instructional Materials Council Secretariat doing the work alone.

He said the department should tap the “centers of excellence” in public and private institutions such as the University of the Philippines, National Institute of Science and Mathematics Education, the Ateneo de Manila Department of English, the University of Sto.Tomas Department of Science and the De La Salle University Department of Filipino to do the evaluation.

Gonzalez suggested the textbooks should have the seals of approval from the accredited center of excellence, and the names of the approving institutions should be prominently displayed on the textbooks.

He explained that through the proposition, the institution will provide good products because their reputation would be at stake.

The NBDB chief said his proposal to decentralize DepEd textbook evaluation is also in line with the National Book Policy which states that “DepEd shall initiate measures to decentralize evaluation of textbooks, references and other instructional materials particularly those which are locally developed and/or intended for specific geographic areas or cultural communities.”