MANILA — The Department of Education (DepEd) said it plans to provide every public school in the country with internet connectivity to improve teaching and learning processes, an official said Saturday.
In a statement, Education Undersecretary for Administration Alain Del Pascua explained the importance of maximizing the use of available technologies in the classroom for the benefit of Filipino learners.
“We are eyeing the implementation of the DepEd Internet Connectivity Program which will be first implemented in five pilot regions. We have allotted PHP1-billion fund for the said program and we’ll be trying all platforms and devices to deliver internet connectivity to schools such as broadband, satellite, etc.,” Del Pascua said.
Del Pascua added that DepEd has plans to put up “e-classrooms” in public schools where traditional blackboards will be replaced by digital boards which would allow teachers and learners to play educational videos, presentations, and other educational resources.
Del Pascua said these efforts “will be fulfilled in conjunction with the DepEd Computerization Program (DCP) which aims to raise the information and communications technology literacy of learners, teachers, and school heads by integrating in the school system and providing information technology (IT) equipment to schools nationwide”.
Del Pascua explained that all the DCP units which have been distributed to a number of schools include offline versions of needed learning materials so that learners and teachers may access them even without internet connectivity.
“Yung computers na idi-distribute, mayroon na yang nakapasok sa hard disk an offline version nung portal ng DepEd, may mga learning materials na rin po na naka-save doon. So kahit walang internet, mayroon na siyang resources kaagad na maa-access,” he said.
Del Pascua, in an earlier interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA), said that around 14,289,301 public school learners and 451,118 public school teachers will benefit from DCP.
He also said that 462,114 IT will be deployed to different public schools this year.
DepEd’s 2018 budget for DCP is PHP8.6 billion. (Ma. Teresa Montemayor/PNA)
