The Department of Education (DepEd) on Wednesday said it has achieved a historic level in its textbook title procurement, securing 100 percent of all 105 target textbook titles for basic education.

The milestone addresses one of the key challenges cited by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II), with the significant delays resulting in the procurement of only 27 out of 88 required titles between 2014 and 2023.

In a statement, DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara said the agency has made the achievement possible through strict enforcement of target timelines, transparency, and quality control.

“When 27 titles in a decade is your baseline, delivering 105 titles in a single year isn’t just an administrative achievement; it is a fundamental restoration of service to our learners,” he said.

“We dismantled unnecessary bottlenecks, strictly enforced timeline discipline, and proved that transparency, speed, and quality control can go hand-in-hand to ensure our schools receive complete, high-quality learning resources without delay.”

Angara said the historic milestone of a 100-percent completion rate was reached through policy adjustments.

This showed a rising trend from 57 percent combined completion across 2024 and 2025, and 31 percent from 2014 to 2023.

“For 10 years, our public school system was trapped in a cycle where procuring a single textbook title took up to three years, leaving millions of learners and teachers without the fundamental tools they needed,” Angara said.

The tweaked measure limits initial technical checks for completion within five days, while content evaluation is strictly under a 90-calendar day framework cap.

Price considerations are also decoupled from material quality scoring. Once a title passes quality assurance, it proceeds to procurement without further text modifications.

With the full completion in place this year, all 105 approved printed and electronic textbook titles will transition to nationwide distribution for classroom implementation.

This covers learning resources required for the successive phases of curriculum implementation, beginning with Grades 1, 4, 7, and Senior High School in 2024.

Textbook titles for Grade 3 and Grades 2, 5, and 8 in 2025 followed, as well as Grades 6, 9, and 10 in 2026, with all phases completed this year. (PNA)