Speaking at the second 'National ICT in Basic Education' Congress which opened here Wednesday, President Arroyo said the government is intent in increasing not only the number of Internet-ready computers in public high schools but also in increasing the number of teachers that are knowledgeable in ICT.
'We need more ICT-competent teachers; this is why DepEd (Department of Education) and CICT (Commission on ICT) are currently drafting the National ICT Competency Standards (NICS) for teachers,' she said, adding that this would be implemented in all high schools once finalized.
The President urged the private sector to join the public sector's efforts in tapping ICT to help improve the Philippines' quality of education.
'Let us truly make our Philippine educational system fit for the knowledge century of the new millennium,' she said. 'Most teachers should comply with NICS by 2010.'
The President is lobbying for the integration of ICT in the academe because, according to her, this would 'develop the Filipino youth's computer skills and provide them with the advantage in securing jobs in the future.'
'ICT is the wave of the future, the foundation for tomorrow's economic development and it provides jobs to millions of Filipinos,' she added.
According to DepEd figures, the PC-to-teacher ratio in the elementary level is at one is to seven and one is to three for the high school level. On the other hand, the PC-to-student ratio is one to 25,000 in the elementary level and one to 111 in the secondary level.
While the ratio remains far from ideal, the status of ICT in Philippine education has gone a long way already from the time when only a handful of schools had PCs, said DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus, who was also present in the Cebu congress.
'Sixty-nine percent of public schools now have at least one PC, we hope to increase this figure to 75 percent by the end of 2006,' he said.
During her speech, PGMA also underscored the government's intent to increase the number of Internet-ready computers, especially in the most populous high schools. She encourages teachers and school administrators to inform DepEd if their respective schools are not computerized yet in order to be given PCs.