110306: 1,000 public high schools now linked to Internet, says DepEd

 

By Blessie Cordero
Correspondent

A STEP closer to the completion of the aim to be able to get public- school students across the country connected to the Internet.
           
The Department of Education (DepEd) announced on Thursday that some 1,000 public secondary schools nationwide are now connected to the Internet through the Gearing Up Internet Literacy and Access for Students (Gilas) project.
           
Education Secretary Jesli Lapuz said that Gilas aims to provide Internet connectivity for the entire public high-school system in the country.
           
Gilas, whose idea started in January 2005, is a multisectoral initiative that aims to provide Internet access for students and basic Internet literacy programs in the 5,443 public secondary schools in the next five years.
           
The mission is led by a social consortium of private corporations and civic organizations, in coordination with DepEd.
           
Lapus considers information communication technology (ICT) in basic education a part of his key priorities recognizing the need to make ICT widely accessible and available to the students and the teachers in public schools.
           
“Educational development and interventions should be geared toward ensuring the empowerment of learners with lifelong skills through the use of appropriate technologies,” he said.
           
He added that it is the dream of the department that the best of the Filipino learners will emerge at the forefront of economic development empowered by an ICT-supported system of quality basic education for all.
           
The department’s ICT integration program, Lapus added, focuses on educational development, in line with several national policies that include the Medium Term Development Plan of the Philippines, the Basic Education Curriculum, Schools First Initiative and the National Action Plan to Achieve Education for All by the year 2015.
           
DepEd estimates placed computer penetration at one school for every 25,000 elementary pupils and one for every 728 elementary- school teachers.
           
On the other hand, high-school penetration is at one computer for every 111 secondary-school students, and one for every three secondary-school teacher.           

Business Mirror
November 3, 2006
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/eco03.php