Lapus

Pasay City (26 October) -- Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Jesli A. Lapus today bared the government's program to integrate information and communications technology (ICT) in basic education, in a message delivered at the Philippine Education Roadmap Conference at Hotel Philippine Plaza, Pasay City.

"It is our dream that the best of the Filipino learner shall emerge at the forefront of economic development empowered by an ICT-supported system of quality basic education for all," Lapus told conference delegates from Philippine Computer Society, Philippine Society of IT Educators, Philippine State Universities and Colleges Computer Education and Systems Society, and Psaya-Makati Educators and Administrators of Skills Training Association.

Secretary Lapus said the ICT-empowerment program for education is in line with the medium-term Philippine development plan (MTPDP).

Lapus bared DepEd ICT initiatives in the past years, including massive computerization program for secondary schools under the DepEd Computerization Program, educational television-based programs of the Knowledge Channel Foundation and ABS-CBN Foundation, and the computer-based teaching and learning programs of FIT-ED (the Foundation for IT Education and Development), Intel's Teach to the Future and Microsoft's Partners in Learning Program.

Lapus declared: "The quality of and access to basic education substantially remains as the overriding goal of educational development. Thus, all educational interventions shall be geared towards ensuring the empowerment of learners with life-long skills through the use of appropriate technologies. Educational development therefore is the purpose of our information and communications technology program."