Advocacy group Telecom Tower Watch is seeking government and private sector support for connectivity and capacity building programs critical to digital readiness of the Philippine education sector.
It said the shift to e-learning amid the pandemic revealed the gaps in connectivity, equipment and ICT skills of teachers and the learners.
“Upgrading of our digital infrastructure and services must be matched with capacity building in terms of skillsets and enabling policies that are compatible to the innovative and competitive environment of the growing digital economy,” Orlando Oxales, Telecom Tower Watch convenor, said in a statement.
Oxales appealed to the government to allocate adequate funding to accelerate the implementation of the National Broadband Program, Free Wi-Fi for All and the common tower initiative of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to further expand and improve internet services in the country.
“Government funding must sustain the DICT and DepEd’s (Department of Education) Digital Learners and Teachers Project, and The ICT Academy project under the Digital Workforce Initiative for the upskilling of Filipino workers in Information Technologies, and the DICT’s educational portal implemented with Microsoft for online ICT training of civil servants to allow career advancement and enhance key public services,” he said.
He added that more collaborative interventions to strengthen digital connectivity and the upskilling of all teachers in the basic and higher education must be encouraged with incentive mechanisms such as tax breaks on all ICT related equipment.
“Private sector partnerships such as Globe Telecom’s partnership with DepEd Cebu to build new cell sites is an initiative that can be replicated by telcos to enhance accessibility to wireless broadband services for e-learning and will also prove critical during disasters and elections,” said Oxales.
In a recent statement, DICT Secretary Gregorio Honasan II said: “Moving forward, we shall exert our utmost efforts to ensure the delivery of quality education to our children — education that they will need to live fulfilling lives as adults and to participate in and contribute to the global digital economy.”
Telecom Tower Watch is an advocacy partnership of the DICT and CitizenWatch Philippines to accelerate the expansion of telecom towers and fiber-optic networks to catch up with the growing demand for broadband services.
