Philippines

UPDATE: October 2nd, 2008

We continue to make progress in Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines and have selected a group to complete our evaluation in these countries. The group with support from Bob Kozma has begun to plan the evaluation program with our staff.

In addition to beginning preparations for the evaluation, the team established six computer labs in teacher training institutes in Mindanao, Luzon and Visayas.  The teacher training institutes will be provided with 3-year licenses to train pre-service teachers on the World Links program.  The proposed Memorandum of Agreement with the teacher training institutes is currently being reviewed by our pro bono IP attorneys at Hogan and Hartson LLP.

As of the end of May, four training centers have been officially inaugurated in the Philippines: College of Education, Mariano Marcos State University, Laoag City (Luzon); Cebu Province Division, Department of Education, Cebu City (Visayas); Western Visayas College of Schience and Technology, Iloilo City (Visayas); College of Education, Mindanao State University, Iligan Institute of Technology, Iligan City (Mindanao).  Each training center will ensure the continuity of the training program of World Links in the Philippines primarily by serving the lead training center for ICT integration, not only for the area where it is located but also for nearby areas in the region. Two more centers are set to be inaugurated within the month of June.

The Philippines project accomplishments have included:

  • The training of 152 teachers and faculty from public and private secondary schools and teacher training institutions
  • 40 of the 152 teachers and faculty have completed the trainings for Phase 1 and Phase 2
  • Hundreds of teacher-designed learning activities uploaded onto www.ourvillage.world-links.org
  • Eight telecollaborative projects ongoing
  • Number of echo training participants:
    • In-service: 481 teachers
    • Pre-service: 409 student teachers and faculty
  • In terms of geographical coverage, the program has trained teachers in 57 out of the 187 school divisions of the Department of Education

Two teachers wrote an Action Research Report which can be viewed at:
www.ourvillage.world-links.org/?q=node/342

Background

The Republic of the Philippines is a large island nation located in the Malay Archipelago in Southeast Asia. It is a large country with 89 million inhabitants. The history of the Philippines has been dominated by constant colonization. The Philippine Islands became a Spanish colony during the 16th century; they were ceded to the US in 1898 following the Spanish-American War. In 1935 the Philippines became a self-governing commonwealth.

The Philippines is a developing country with an agriculture based economy. There is some light industry and the service sector is growing. Only 9.1% of the population has reliable access to the internet and this is primarily in urban areas. Though there has been an increase of 250% of access since 2000, access growth has not been as strong as other countries in the area. With more investment and continuing teacher professional development, World Links is hoping to expand access and improve the quality of education.

World Links in the Philippines

World Links has been working with funds from the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) to implement a regional teacher professional development program in Filipino secondary schools. The principal objective of the ASEAN SchoolNet project is to help disadvantaged youth in ASEAN countries develop the knowledge, skills and experience they need to get jobs in the global knowledge economy. The countries of ASEAN have expressed a keen interest in promoting Information and Communication Technology (ICT) competencies among their populations and in preparing ASEAN students to enter the labor market with the necessary skills to compete in a global economy increasingly driven by knowledge and information. This project will provide hardware, software and teacher training to selected schools in four ASEAN countries as a means to explore and demonstrate sustainable solutions for mobilizing the necessary technologies, training, and educational resources to improve teaching and learning outcomes. The pilot schools are to serve as models and learning labs in their respective countries. The JSDF has provided support through the World Bank to implement this regional program that will include national pilot programs in four countries: Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Projects and Achievements

In the Philippines World Links has trained 83 Master Teacher Trainers on web-enhanced learning activities and an additional 18 teachers on telecollaborative learning lessons. Through the World Links cascade model of training, another 424 teachers have been trained using our materials. Thirteen schools have participated in telecollaborative projects involving approximately 600 students. The Philippines has been one of World Links’ most successful projects and a model to other countries in the region.

Additionally, in September of 2006, World Links sponsored an ICT in Education Regional Policy Forum in Cebu City. Twenty education policymakers and planners from the five target countries attended. The objective of the Forum was to provide participants the opportunity to share their technology experiences in education and discuss key policy issues. Session topics included access and equity, infrastructure, professional development, language and culture, curriculum and content development, financing, and monitoring & evaluation. For more information on this seminar our ICT in Education Page

Please visit the "Our Village " project site for information on World Links' projects in the ASEAN countries.

For more information please contact:

Liezl Formilleza-Dunuan
National Coordinator
World Links Philippines
lsformilleza@fit-ed.org

Lady Diane T. Kuizon
Assistant National Coordinator
World Links Philippines
ldtkuizon@pfgc.ph

T: (02) 885-0923 to 24
F: (02) 885-0925