It's the textbook, enough of the curriculum

All right, teacher training is an important component of our efforts to advance the Values Education of young Filipinos. But it will take time--perhaps, more than four years--before we could fix the teacher-training problem. So, again, I propose that the DepEd should focus first on the production of a WORLD-CLASS values ed textbook that untrained teachers of values ed could use while waiting to be fully trained to teach the course. 

A good textbook could be produced by a team of INTELLIGENT experts within the span of one to two years, especially if the values ed curriculum is a sound guide. (Unfortunately, at this point, it's not.) While this is not a cure-all remedy, a well-written textbook could certainly help solve a huge part of the problem (i.e., content and pedagogy). The publication-of-a-world-class-textbook approach, apparently, applies to Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies) and other areas of study. I would like to reiterate that the first ones to attempt to write a model textbook should be the curriculum makers themselves. That is to say, the curriculum designers should demonstrate first how their curriculum is to be construed by the textbook writers. 

What's a world-class textbook? One that will pass, with flying colors, a rigorous academic and practical test. Think of the internationally acclaimed math textbooks from the Singapore. Meaning, a merely published textbook from the curriculum makers does not immediately count as a world-class textbook. That status, anywhere in the world, could be attained only through greatest efforts, which typically begins on the day we start building a curriculum. Nevertheless, absent a good curriculum, the publication of a good textbook is nothing like an impossible thing.