The general management of the Colegio de Estudios Científicos y Tecnológicos del Estado de Baja California (CECyTE BC) admitted that it did not review the contents of an English textbook that taught its fifth-semester students to say rudeness, so already withdrew it from its 28 educational campuses.
The official response came after Political Animal on Tuesday, October 15, that CECyTE BC hired the company Impressions and High Quality Finishes Da Vinci S. A. de C.V. to edit and print an English textbook that included the translation of expressions like “you make me horny” , “you’re a son of a bitch, ” or “shut the fuck up,” which were also copied from internet pages.
Teachers of CECyTE BC explained to this medium that this institution, which depends on the state government, has an editorial committee that “improves, modifies and updates” school content every semester. However, in this case the fifth semester English book, CECyTE BC bought it without going through the prior evaluation of the contents and the approval of the editorial committee.
Situation that CECyTE BC admitted in written response to a questionnaire Political Animal: “Unfortunately, the book was not revised on this occasion since it was a content of last year and, unfortunately, it was trusted that it would come in handy,” said the general direction of the College through its social communication department, which nuanced that area in charge of the revision of the textbook is the Academic Directorate, “in conjunction with teachers from the various campuses”.
In view of the errors detected, the institution decided to remove 700 copies that were in the hands of students between the ages of 17 and 18, out of a total of 2 thousand acquired – the other 300 remained in the administrative offices, since CECyTE BC ensures that it does not go away after the errors were detected, and the 100 pesos of the cost of each copy returned to those who bought it.
“Such purchase of books was voluntary, at no time was it obligatory for students to acquire them,” stressed the academic institution, adding that those who had to return the books now work “with photocopied material or other material that is counted in the campus library.”
Some of the rudeness that appears in the books
Company was selected for its low cost
Political Animal he also published in last Tuesday’s note that the company that edited, designed and printed the English book full of rudeness and translations copies of the web, was registered in 2011 in the provider register of the College of Technical Professional Education (Conalep) of the Nayarit state, but as an aluminium supplier for school furniture, a very different turn from editing educational text books.
While in December 2014 he participated in a tender at the invitation of CECyTE, but from the state of Nayarit, in which he competed for a contract to manufacture “administrative uniform shirts”, another turn other than editing educational books.
With this background, the management of CECyTE BC, by José Luis Kato Lizardi, was questioned why he hired the company Impressions and High Quality Finishes Da Vinci S. A. de C. V. for the purchase of the fifth semester English book. To which it replied that, the commercial relationship has come from 2016, and that it was selected “for its low cost of production and for the facilities it gives for the consignment of material that no other publisher offers”.
However, the management of CECyTE BC did not respond to the questions posed by this means of the company’s procurement process, whether it was by direct award, public tender or restricted invitation, or what was the amount of the contract.
What the institution did answer is that they returned the errorous textbooks to the company, and that it will be the next state administration and its new officials “who will have to review whether they continue to work with it, or if they use other schemes.”
Currently, in addition to the fifth semester English book with errors, the contracted company, based in Nayarit, also edited the books of Mathematics and Biology for CECyTE campuses in Baja California.
Spanish translations… Spain
In addition to rudeness, the English textbook teaches translations that in Spanish Mexico can lend to a double meaning such as ‘Mind the Gap – Beware of the Gap’, ‘Piece of cake – It’s Sucked!, or ‘Shoot the Breeze’ – ‘Give the Tongue’.
The book also includes expressions in Spanish that have no use in Mexico, such as ‘It’s not worth a hard’ – a hard one equals five pesetas, the old Spanish currency before the arrival of the Euro in the year 2000- or ‘Don’t tell me milongas’ -expression that Colloquially it is used in Spain to ask that someone not deceive you, or make no excuses.
Apart from the response to Animal Político’s questionnaire, CECyTE BC published a fact sheet on this case, which you can read in full here.
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