Taguig starts putting up cyber labs in public schools

MANILA, Philippines - The Taguig City government has started the roll out of fully-equipped cyber labs in all their 12 public high schools, and even three public elementary schools, as they make a bid to produce high school graduates that are information technology (IT) savvy and ready for employment in four years.

Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano, in the groundbreaking of the cyber lab of the Upper Bicutan National High School last Friday, said that considerable investment they were making in quality IT education in public high schools was expected to bear full fruit when the city’s public high schools start graduating students ready for employment.

“This is an investment in education which we hope will lead to great employment opportunities for our youth in Taguig City in the near future, and make them productive and self-reliant individuals,” Cayetano said.

The IT programs to be offered to the Taguig high school students include web design, personal computer (PC) operations, hardware troubleshooting, computer programming, Digital Arts, Animation, Photoshop, Graphics Design, Web Programming, and Move Making.

Taguig, it was learned, partnered with CAL (Computer Assisted Learning), headed by its president Leo Riingen, to set up modern, fully-equipped cyber labs. CAL also provided the IT education modules for the elementary and high school students, the training of teachers handling the IT subjects, and the maintenance of the computers.

CAL has been the partner of numerous private schools such as Xavier School, Ateneo De Naga, Miriam College, and other prestigious schools in starting effective IT education programs.

Riingen said that all Taguid public high school graduates who underwent the CAL program was expected to take an assessment test with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), which can bring a TESDA national certificate on computer operations or web programming.