by Rizalie A. Calibo

Siquijor (17 October) -- At least eight high schools and two Local Government Units (LGUs) in the province of Siquijor received brand-new computers with printers and peripherals from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)'s Personal Computers for Public Schools (PCPS) project.

The project is the agency's response to the compelling challenges posed by the fast-emerging Knowledge Economy. It aims to enhance the IT skills of Filipino youth as the country's future knowledge workers and promote IT culture in the Philippine classrooms as an avenue to develop Filipinos' skills to be at par with global standards.

The Philippines is now recognized for its competitive advantage in the IT services sector, being the second largest producer of computer services in Asia, next only to India, and having been ranked Number 4 worldwide in the category "Knowledge Jobs" in the 2002 Global New Economy Index by US-based Meta Group Research.

Through the project, the DTI strives to maintain this advantage and to provide a continuous pool of manpower in the IT sector, while promoting the need to incorporate IT in the basic levels of education by providing computers to public high schools.

Since its inception, the project has already established computer laboratories in 2,228 public high schools nationwide, distributed 32,240 brand new computers equipped with updated software, trained 24,389 high teachers on the use of computer technology as a tool for teaching and learning, and on basic PC operations, troubleshooting and preventive maintenance, and provided 250 pilot LGUs with computer package consisting of one computer-server and four workstations installed with eLGU application systems

Following is the list of schools and LGUs in Siquijor which received packages of PCs with accompanying printers and peripherals: