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EDUCATION Secretary Jesli Lapus defended on Tuesday the
cyber education project (CEP) of the department, saying
that it will be “a big loss” to the schooling of
Filipino students if it were not implemented.
He was
replying to objections and doubts over the $329-million
[about P16 billion] deal between the government and
Chinese state-owned ZTE Corp. raised by legislators and
private-sector academic personalities.
Lapus
also denied again that the project is linked to the
controversial $330-million ZTE national broadband
network (NBN) deal, stressing that there “is no link at
all, not even an iota.”
Earlier,
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said that, “technically, that
is true,” of Lapus’ denial of any connection with the
NBN deal, but that just the same, the CEP project loan
is lumped together in the same China loan package.
Also,
Sen. Edgardo Angara had announced an investigation of
the project, which Lapus welcomed, saying the senator
would change his mind once he has full information on
the CEP, which he believes will justify their rationale
for the initiative and fully expose its capability to
deliver quality mass education with attendant savings of
billions of pesos to government.
When
asked if the CEP will be affected should government
decide to scrap the ZTE deal, Lapus replied, “Maybe.
China will be upset with what is happening now. . .who
knows, they might change their mind.”
Lapus
was happy to note that some officials of the department
went to Thailand recently to observe the technology.
“And they were very impressed when they observed
Thailand’s distance learning.”
He
stressed the immediate need to enhance distance learning
in the Philippines through technology, like the CEP, for
“the
Philippines
is already way behind neighboring countries in Asia.”
The CEP
will be implemented in partnership with Tsinghua
University, China’s top technology university, which
manages the China Education and Research Network that
covers 320 million beneficiaries.
The
project is a satellite-based distance-education program
that provides real-time interactivity to public schools.
The project will link all administrative units in the
country, including the central office, 17 regional
offices, 187 division offices and 37,792 public schools.
It will
provide 12 video channels, wireless wide-area
networking, local area networking and wireless Internet
to even the remotest area in the country.
The
project was approved by the National Economic
Development Authority in March 2007. The project is also
in accordance with the Framework Agreement on Bilateral
Economic and Trade Cooperation signed January 15, 2007,
with China. |
