DepEd to merge Oracle system in HS curriculum

The Department of education will integrate the Oracle Academy System into the country's secondary education curriculum this year in its effort to further improve students' skills in information and communications technology.

DepEd Undersecretary Fe Hidalgo said the goal of the agreement is to give students an early advantage in learning IT-related skills to prepare them for future employment.

DepED recently signed a $380-million agreement with Oracle Philippines to integrate the Oracle Academy system into the secondary education curriculum in all secondary public schools nationwide.

The agreement complements Oracle's other education-related initiatives in the Philippines, particularly Think.com and Thinkquest for the primary and secondary education students, as well as the Oracle Academic Initiative for tertiary education.

Under the agreement, Oracle Academy will be integrated into high school curriculum and hopes to raise awareness among students on different IT applications and develop their technical skills.

The Oracle Academy will be implemented in two phases, the first being a teacher training program for 60 teachers in 30 schools that are identified by the DEPED.

The second phase will be to prepare another 1,500 teachers from 750 schools.

The Philippines has over 5,000 public high schools.

Among the subjects that will be covered are database applications, SQL, Java programming and general business skills. - Jasmin R. Uy