Execs want P26.5-B IT scheme junked
By Daxim Lucas, Inquirer
Last updated 03:19am (Mla time) 06/01/2007MANILA, Philippines — A group of business leaders advocating education has called on the government to stop a Department of Education plan to link all public schools nationwide via a P26.5-billion computer network system, saying the money would be better spent on other priorities.The Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) said the money for the education department’s Cyber Education Project would be more effectively used if spent to upgrade teachers’ skills, buy more textbooks and build more classrooms.
“There are so many shortfalls in education that the money would be better spent elsewhere,” PBEd founding director Chito Salazar said in an interview.
The education department’s scheme calls for a nationwide network that would broadcast educational courses and live instruction sessions via satellite- and Internet-based facilities.
A brainchild of Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, its stated aim is to “to improve the delivery of and access to quality basic education services.”
The Cyber Education Project — which costs approximately $575 million at present exchange rates — was approved recently by the National Economic and Development Authority.
Salazar pointed out that the amount to be spent for the Cyber Education Project was enough to pay for master’s degree scholarships of 260,000 teachers — half of the Department of Education’s roster of instructors.
“This is also twice the P13.5 billion needed to implement free universal pre-school education nationwide,” he said.
Tita Becky says…
PBEd founding director Chito Salazar has my admiration for pointing out to seemingly blind-and-deaf incumbent Secretary of Education Jesli Lapus that money in that tune should be more wisely spent in the upgrade of better basic facilities, like more scholarships for teachers to make them better educators, more schools and classrooms, better and more widely distributed textbooks to reach the children of schooling age even in nooks and crannies of all regions in the country. A small chunk of these funds could also be allocated for a very necessary review and rehash of paperworks required by the DepEd from our school teachers, most of which are mere duplications or grossly outdated and already irrelevant.
Basics and fundamentals should be first in our list of priorities — and if, after all the basics have been satisfactorily addressed and we still have excess funds, then we go for “sophistication” of our educational system which may, but not necessarily, include computerization of individual schools and eventual linking of all schools through the internet.
On Thursday, the PBEd and the Foundation for Worldwide People Power Inc. (FWWPPI) released a statement viewing “with deep concern” government’s decision to proceed with the project, which will be funded largely through a loan from China.
Tita Becky says…
And why this talk about “loans” again? Why the necessity of another loan? Can’t our DepEd really get a slice of the positive effects of Senator Ralph Recto’s much-praised eVAT to our national coffers? Didn’t this eVAT policy come packaged with a comprehensive program of distribution of funds? I think the government should let the grassroots feel even a trickle of the good that this eVAT is purported to have done to our economy through an improvement in the BASIC NEEDS of our present education system, first and foremost.
“As its partner in making quality education for all Filipino children a reality, we call on government to withdraw this project and instead put the financial resources where they are needed more and where they can make a bigger difference,” the PBEd said.
“While we welcome more investment into the ailing Philippine education system, we question the wisdom of the chosen input considering the huge amount of funds involved,” it said.
“It is, after all, our firm belief that a key lever for reversing the education crisis is not only the provision of more funds but also how such funds shall be converted into effective inputs.”
Prominent members of PBEd include Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala II of the conglomerate Ayala Corp., Jose Cuisia Jr. of Philippine-American Life Insurance Co., and Ramon del Rosario Jr. of the PHINMA group. With INQUIRER.net
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Tita Becky says…
I hope and pray that Education Secretary Lapus and whoever else in NEDA is backing him up in his campaign for this cyber education project be enlightened, and dedicate whatever funds the DepEd could get its hands on to higher-quality education, scholarship grants to produce better teachers, more schools and classrooms, and better and more textbooks for our children and our children’s children, instead of computerization aimed at eventually cyber-linking of schools.
I stand behind the prominent members of the PBEd in their firm belief that the real mark of a good economy is in how funds are converted into effective inputs. We should be vigilant and do everything within our meager powers to campaign AGAINST this cyber education project, and any other ventures that would spell an improper management of our education, our funds and the national economy, in general.
Just my two-cents’ worth. All other opinions and counter-opinions are welcome.
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