Over decades, the innovation of technology surprisingly change the growth of the global economy. The revolution of technology through ICT (Information and Communication Technology) becomes the game changer in globalization. The development of ICT improve the global competitiveness in every nation back then until the present time. The way on how it affects every individual, creates a big impact on how we used to live in this 21st century era. Thus, the development of ICT in every country is still on process due to the demands in technology and cyberspace connection. Many developing countries are now on the phase of integrating ICT in different sectors like education, government and other local institution. But as a citizen in the Philippines, how does our government manage the current status of ICT in our country? Do we seen the progress of their plan in improving it for the betterment of all? What are the things they need to address in order to provide good services in every Filipino citizen who were engaged in this type of platform?
During 1987, the Philippine Constitution started to recognize the role of ICT in nation building, that's why they created the so called Philippine ICT Strategic Roadmap. This ICT Roadmap contains strategies and programs in developing ICT in general. This is one of the programs of CICT (Commission for Information and Communication Technology) which aims to create a "people-centered inclusive and development-oriented Information Society". They also believes that, the primary role in this ICT development is to provide an enabling policy, legal and regulatory environment. They want to create a sustainable ICT that is accessible to all citizen.
The CICT in partnership with other government sectors were already implementing different programs according to ICT Roadmap from 2005 up to 2010. This programs focused on the application of ICT in different government and non-government sectors. They created CeCP (Community e-Center Program) in different local community. This program helps the education and PWD sector as well as the LGu of different municipalities in the Philippines. They were also created the National Broadband Plan that focused on reaching greater scale of connectivity in different public access points. In addition, they also have the Last Mile Initiative program for some remote areas in Philippines. The initiative of this program to reach out to different sectors and LGu's were very relevant in attaining the goal of ICT accessibility. The ICT must be visible to everyone not only for the purpose of recognizing its presence but also for incorporating its uses for a better community.
As of now, the CICT is dissolved and change into DICT ( Department of Information and Communications Technology). Their programs are now innovated to ensure that the ICT in the Philippines can keep up to the needs for the 21st Century Era. They are now starting to build a free access wifi zones in different public places in Philippines. The National Broadband Plan is now innovated in accordance to the needs of the market. They increased the deployment of fiber optics and wireless technologies to improve the internet speed in our country. They also created some software that will help the LGu's in some business transactions to be done online like Electronic Business Permits and Licensing System, Central Business Portal, and etc. They also ensure that all the government information, transaction and services must be accessible to the public through National Government Portal and Medium-Term Information and Communications Technology Harmonization Initiative.
The innovation of ICT in LGu's and government sectors delivers the ideal on how ICT should be implemented in this era but there are also some problems associated with this programs and projects that needs to be addressed. First, the Free WiFi for all project is good but not everyone can experience the benefits of this project.As of now, the coverage of this project is only limited to some public areas in different cities in the Philippines.I think one of the reasons why this thing happened is simply because the implementation of this project depends on the IRA (Internal Revenue Allotment) of a particular city and provinces. The government will invest more project on a particular city and provinces that generates more income in business, exportation and local investment. This situation is easy to recognize if you are going to some provinces and municipalities far from the metro. Second, the National Broadband Plan innovation is good as it aims to provide good internet services but the accessibility of it in larger scale population must be take in charge. The Philippines is recognize as the social media capital of the world because of having a fastest growing social media users around the globe but it seems like our internet connectivity can't keep up to its demand. According to the statistics of Seasia.com, Philippines rank on the 97th spot in terms of internet speed and downloads, far from our neighboring countries like Taiwan and Singapore that is on the 1st and 2nd spot on the global rankings. Gringo Honasan II, the DICT chief says that having 3 to 7 mbps internet speed is not bad but some Filipinos we're not happy on that statement. I am also not in favor in that statement because, we Filipinos deserves better. We pay alot for a sustainable and accessible internet but we often experience lag or lost of connection frequently than a stable one. This must become one of the priorities of the government since we are now using the internet for the online class and government transaction as we face the new normal. More cell towers and fiber optics should be build on the cities and provinces to ensure the quality of service that the Telco companies can give to the public. Third, the business transaction is very relevant nowadays as many Filipinos are venturing to be an entrepreneur. Through the help of online transaction, many Filipinos can now apply for a business permit in hassle free way but the waiting process of it takes too long. Probably the reason aside from the lack of personel, the internet speed on different government offices is not stable. This needs to be fixed urgently because the slow government transaction depicts the slow growth of our economy. Fourth, the easy access on the government information, transaction and services is very helpful to everyone since it is easy for us to be informed on the government action on different sectors and offices but one thing this program needs to establish is the familiarization of this program to the public most especially for the senior citizen. Many of the Filipinos nowadays are not aware that the website of different government sectors exist. To manage this concern, the government in partnership with the LGU's must develop a sensible action plan that will caters public attention towards the awareness in this type platform.
Focusing on the sector of education, ICT becomes one of the tool used for the effective learning of the 21st century learners. It is also part of the Enhance Basic Education Curriculum program of DepEd which aims to integrate ICT in curriculum for the development of multimedia accessibility of students and teachers. There are different programs created by CICT (now Dict) in accordance to ICT integration in public and private school sectors like eSkwela, iSchool Web Board, Ph El Net and etc. This programs aims to support the educational system in the Philippines through ICT. In order to manage the system of ICT, DepEd create a governance frame work called ICT4E strategic plan which specify the decision rights and accountability framework of the used of ICT. The initiative of this plan or this assessment is in line to the DepEd Computerization Program (DCP). This program will be deploying computer packages to public Elementary and High School nationwide. This is a big help for the K-12 learners as they are now under the new enhance curriculum of DepEd.
On the other hand, there are other factors that needs to give focused for the betterment of this program in education. First, the ratio of the students and the computers are not equally proportion. As one of the student who experience to have a computer literacy class, the ratio of 3:1 is very difficult. Many of us were having a hard time in doing such computer applications like rebooting, programming and etc. It is hard for us to share the computer because we are not that good in terms manipulating the keys on the keyboard in a short period of time. This sometimes result on lack of chances to some students that also wants to experience doing some computer related works. Second, there are lack of infrastructures for the ICT class. One of the subjects we take on SHS is ICT literacy. That subject requires us to experience the actual set-up on how to do some computer related programs like doing some paper reports using Microsoft (word,excel and power point presentation)creating a website and etc. But at that time, we don't have enough facility for the computers in our SHS Building. For us to have an ICT class, we need to go to Junior High school building which is a little bit far to our SHS building. Also, we need to set a schedule in using the computer laboratory because we are not the only student who will used that facility. For the third and last one, we are also lacking of teachers that would teach us the lesson about computer literacy. Due to lack of funds from the government, our school were not able to hire teachers with license in computer service. This situation results to more workloads to our teachers and at the same time they were experiencing some hard time in teaching the subject because this is not their subject mastery.
Even though there are somethings that our government needs to manage in the ICT education in the Philippines still we are on the good track record in terms of ICT integration. On the status of ICT integration among South East Asian Countries, we are now on the stage of infusing the ICT on the existing teaching, learning and administrative practices and policies along with the countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. It is an indicator on how we managed to employ the ICT in the system of education. Thus, we should never stop to improve our ICT status because our economy right now depends on how globally competitive we are in addressing all the needs of of the 21st century era.
To end up all my statement, the government effort in exploring the used of ICT in the Philippines opens alot of possibilities not only for our economy but also for the education. Managing it to fill in the needs of this generation must always be take in charge and not for granted. Maybe for now, It is a challenge to our government to supply the needs of it in a greater scale population but the future of ict in the Philippines is now unlocked. We are now on the stage of improving it for the better. The power of ICT is now on our fingertips and we should empowered everyone in molding our economy to the best version it can be.