Tuesday, September 25, 2007 Cabaero: Cyber learning as a casualty of corruption By Nini B. Cabaero Beyond 30
THIS is the problem with corruption. It is not limited to how the people’s money is being stolen or how rules and institutions are getting trampled.
It is about the innocent suffering from the wastage of public funds or from the greediness of people entrusted with the power to decide what serves the public’s interest best.
From the controversy of the past days, the first to fall was the concept of improving public education through cyber learning or learning through the use of new technology.
Cyber education, or its different names such as cyber learning, online learning or digital education, can have its disadvantages, like acquiring the technology required, and its advantages, like tapping education masters outside of the country.
As one who continues to benefit from online learning, I believe the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
Except that something wrong happened on the way to coming up with the Cyber Education Project (CEP) of the Department of Education. When President Arroyo ordered the suspension of both CEP and the now infamous national broadband network (NBN) project of the Department of Transportation, the dream of improving education through innovative means fell victim.
Maybe it was from the heat of the Senate inquiry where the name of presidential husband Mike Arroyo was again floated. Maybe it was because the two projects involved loans from China and involved hundreds of millions of dollars. The NBN contract was worth $329.41 million; the CEP was estimated to cost more at $460 million.
But the first to fall, really, was the concept of cyber learning in public schools because the CEP got lumped with the controversial NBN project.
The broadband network plan could hardly be called a “victim” because its premise and goals have been questionable. A broadband network to connect government offices can best be done by the private sector since there would be the possibility of profit; a cheaper alternative is already available; and for what use would it be to go digital when government documents are mostly still in paper or hard copy stage.
A sad precedent to government’s broadbanding or digitizing directions was the order for all government offices to come up with websites. All or most of them complied. They have websites but these were forgotten or never updated after these were first uploaded.
On the contrary, cyber education, because it is intended to bridge the divide in learning, has an altruistic character. The plan was to use satellite television in public schools to bring English, math and science lessons to students.
Outstanding teachers from here or abroad may be tapped to give lessons through a broadcast.
There could be ways of furthering cyber education without seeking a loan from China.
But with the way an alphabet soup-like situation has cropped up, it was convenient to lump CEP with NBN, ZTE (the Chinese proponent of the NBN project) and FG (first gentleman). The result would be a delay in the implementation of quality education where students become the ultimate casualties.
