ICT in the Philippines

By Precious Christine Castillo

Information and Communication Technology or ICT has a huge role in bringing 21st century
education in the Philippine setting. It is considered at present as a potential tool that provides
educational opportunities in both formal and non-formal ways. It equips learners with digital age
literacy, inventive thinking, higher-order thinking and sound reasoning, effective communication,
and high productivity (Tinio 2002).

Despite the success and positivity of ICT in Philippine Education, it is still inevitable that this
curriculum would face downfalls such as teachers not being fully equipped with the skills they need,
availability of infrastructures and materials and so on and forth. Now for this essay, I did a little
research and found out that the ICT in Philippine Education have four pillars of contribution,
namely: enhancing teaching and learning; enhancing communication and engagement; improving
technology infrastructure; and strengthening information systems.

To enhance ICT teaching and learning, the Department of Education in collaboration with a
Basic Education Sector Transformation Program (BEST) conducted trainings o build the ICT skills
of teachers. The mode of delivery is through learning action cells or LACs which is a group of
teachers, school heads and supervisors who engage in collaborative learning sessions to solve
challenges in a school or a cluster of schools or districts. With this, they are able to help teachers
become better in terms of ICT teaching since they are the front-liners of delivering ICT in Philippine
Education.

As soon as the downsides of ICT in Philippine Education would be given its appropriate
solution, this program would be a terrific innovative way to improve the system of education thus
bringing the competence of Philippine students to a higher level.