Secretary Lapus aims to integrate ICT with basic education in 4 years

Secretary Jesli Lapus yesterday announced the Department of Education's target to integrate information and communications technology with basic education within 2006 through 2010.

Lapus, speaking at the 2nd National ICTs in Basic Education Congress here in Cebu City, said DepEd wanted all public high schools shall have multimedia laboratories within this period, which would result in digital highway connection among all public schools.

"Twenty percent or 7,500 of the 37,492 public elementary schools shall have computer laboratory equipped with basic multimedia equipment and 50 percent of the community learning centers will have computer laboratories," added Lapus for ICT targets for elementary schools.

The secretary said DepEd aims to equip all public schools with computer laboratories and to train at least 50 percent of teachers in English, Math and Science on basic computer literacy skills, laboratory management and pedagogy-technology integration.

There is a need to improve ICT and have this integrated with basic education, said Lapus in response to the call of President Gloria Arroyo to harness the technology that would propel the country's economy to greater heights.

While admitting the need to improve the currently obsolete ICT resources, Lapus proposes the creation of teachers' channel for television, promotion of English, and coordination of various ICT efforts from national and local governments, to non-government organizations, the private sector and the community.

There is currently an absence of specific curricular standards for integrating computers into every subject, Lapus also admitted but he advocated the innovative use of ICT to make learning "more interactive, interdisciplinary, collaborative and authentic."

A survey showed that 58 percent of schools have only less than half of the teaching staff undergone computer-related training, and 12 percent have teachers without any computer-related training at all. "Sadly for those who have undergone ICT training, the nature of the training and effectiveness is unclear," he said.

DepEd data showed also that the ratio of computers in elementary schools to pupils in the country is at 1:25,000 while the computer to teacher ratio is 1:320.

In the secondary level, Lapus said the ratio of computers and students is at 1:111, and the computer to teacher ratio is at 1:3.

This means that training opportunities in ICT-enhanced teaching are still generally limited, said the secretary.

Lapus said DepEd has aimed at rationalizing budget spending for ICT in basic education, following the National Strategic Plan.

A National ICT for Basic Education Fund would also be created to be used for ICT facilities improvement, curriculum based materials development, training for trainers, research and development, and monitoring and evaluation, Lapus said. - Jasmin R. Uy