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THE
chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on
Basic Education on Sunday sought the full implementation
of the $460-million Cyber-Education Project (CEP) but
insisted that it should be insulated from graft.
In
pushing for its implementation, Lakas Rep. Del de Guzman
of Marikina said it is “unfair and unadvisable” to scrap
the project based merely on unsubstantiated allegations
of graft.
“Giving
up the implementation of a noble project is hardly the
answer to claims that the CEP is tainted with
irregulaties. Instead of canceling CEP, the government
should guarantee funding so it could be implemented
effectively in most public schools in the country,” said
de Guzman.
Citing
Marikina’s own cyber-education program, de Guzman said
his city’s positive experience on the local government
project should be applied on a national scale.
According to de Guzman, the
Marikina
City
government has been implementing its own cyber education
for public elementary and high schools for three years
now.
“Our
experience about cyber education is very positive.
Student interest in learning has improved a lot,” said
de Guzman.
Malacañang has suspended implementation of the project
in response to protests from the opposition and other
critics who claimed that the project is fraught with
irregularities.
Critics
have also insisted that the project cannot be carried
out in full scale nationwide because at least 5 percent
of the schools that are supposed to benefit from the
project still do not have electricity.
“It is
not right to let over 90 percent of our students suffer
and be denied access to better education mainly because
less than 10 percent of the school population cannot
benefit from it. That’s just ridiculous,” de Guzman
stressed.
Instead
of giving up the project, de Guzman stressed that the
government should strive more in full energizing the
whole country, if not the barangays where schools do not
have electricity.
Education officials have also expressed disappointment
over the suspension of the project which targets a total
37,794 public schools in the next three years with an
annual coverage of 13.6 million students.
The
project, to be undertaken in cooperation with a Chinese
company, aims to bridge the learning gap between urban
and rural schools by using satellite technology to beam
televised lectures to students and teachers in far-flung
areas.
Education Secretary Jesli Lapus earlier said that
Filipino students will be left behind by their
counterparts abroad without the use of high technology.
“We are
moving forward gradually, slowly and that is good news.
But with the lack of technology we can’t reach anybody.
And with everybody in other countries improving rapidly,
we have to catch up,” Lapus said.
Lapus
said that while the result of the recent National
Achievement Test (NAT) showed improvement of 10 percent
in the aptitude test for mathematics, science and
English, there is still an urgent need to revolutionize
the education sector’s technology.
He
stressed that while the Filipino students are improving
and the quality of education improving, neighboring
countries are doing so at a rapid rate as well owing to
modern facilities.
He
added that the ability to improve the skills of Filipino
youth to become globally competitive rests solely on the
government and the stakeholders’ ability “‘to innovate
and transform education into what is required.”
“If we
are to prepare ourselves to become successful in the
21st Century, we must recognize the need to go beyond
traditional teaching methods,” Lapus said, adding: “We
have to look beyond the power of technology to improve
our lives. We, too, must take into account that the
world is dependent so much on these technologies that
ignoring them will not only prevent us from being
competitive globally it may actually render us
incompetent and powerless in the coming years.” (With C.
Mocon) |
