Big business group links 3,000 high schools with Internet

MANILA, Philippines – A consortium of some of the country’s biggest companies announced that it has connected over 3,000 high schools or around 3.5 million students to the Internet after pooling resources from private and public sector partners.

In a statement, the group, called Gearing up Internet Literacy and Access for Student (GILAS), said it has received a total of P369 million worth of donations from local government units, individual donors and institutional partners. Of the amount, over P88 million was received this year as the consortium celebrates the connection of 3,010 schools to date.

The consortium includes Ayala Corp., Hewlett Packard Philippines Inc., IBM Philippines, Intel Philippines, Globe Telecom, Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT), Smart Communications, Bayan Telecommunications Philippines, Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (Digitel), among others.

The project has also trained over 11,621 teachers.

“Building and maintaining strong partnerships have been instrumental in enabling us to tap funding resources,” GILAS co-chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said.

About 34 percent of the total funds raised since 2005 came from the public sector, 15 percent from US-based Filipinos and the rest from the local private firms.

The initiative aims to connect over 6,784 high schools nationwide in a period of two years. GILAS to date has already connected over 39 percent of all high schools in the country.

GILAS was formed by the private sector in 2005 to scale up existing projects that provide Internet-enabled computer laboratories. Earlier efforts include Ayala Foundation’s YouthTech, the Department of Trade and Industry’s PCs for Public Schools and the Makati Business Club’s connected.ph.