Thursday, September 11, 2008 DepEd chief requests P2B more for labs, teachers' ICT training
IN hopes of achieving the “school of the future,” the Department of Education (DepEd) is lobbying for an additional P2 billion for their 2009 budget.
If granted, the funds will pay for their Information and Communications Technology for Education program (ICT4E).
“The P2 billion would not only include the ICT trainings for the teachers but also for the provision of computer laboratories in the secondary level schools,” said Education Secretary Jesli Lapus.
Through the ICT4E program, DepEd hopes to “globally link” students from the Philippines to other countries to create an international learning environment for all students.
“This means an ICT-enabled education system that transforms our children into dynamic life-long learners and values-centered, responsible citizens,” Lapus told hundreds of educators in yesterday’s 3rd National ICTs in Basic Education Congress.
Lapus hopes to increase the use of ICT in all public schools to link students to global resources, help them develop habits of self-learning and allow students to critically seek and analyze information.
“And this is the school of the future: it will allow students to connect with a student from somewhere else in the world and they can do research together,” Lapus told reporters.
While the ICT4E program is expected to start this year, once an allocation has been identified, the education department is in its final stages of the five-year ICT4E strategic plan.
“That amount (P2 billion) may not be realized in full,” Lapus admitted. “It is a new item, so there will have to be a lot of ‘selling’ involved.”
“And if we do not get it (the entire P2 billion), then we will have to realign,” added Lapus.
He also noted the efforts of local government units (LGUs) that have been taking an active part in DepEd’s ICT programs.
“There are some LGUs that are enlightened... some LGUs are putting up computer laboratories,” said Lapus.
As part of the ICT4E strategic plan, DepEd hopes to have all high schools in the county equipped with computer laboratories.
Nationwide, the education department has recorded a total of 44,300 schools, with 37,800 elementary schools and 6,500 high schools. A total of 3,919 high schools have already received computer labs and 700 schools are to follow. By 2009, an additional 2,000 high schools would have computer labs.
However, Lapus admitted that there were still some limitations to the DepEd’s ICT4E program.
“Of these schools, some of these are not even connected to the Internet. And some (computers), need to be updated,” admitted Lapus.
Yet, should the P2 billion additional item see approval and become a regular item in the budget, these problems can easily be addressed.
“It is just unthinkable for a classroom to be doing it (teaching) in the way the Thomasites have been doing it,” said Roberto Romulo, chairman of the Foundation for Information Technology Education and Development. The Thomasites were the American teachers who arrived more than a century ago to help set up the public school system in the Philippines. (EPB)
