Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At the First Congress on Information Technology and Telecommunications Education
[Delivered at the Heroes Hall, Malacañang, February 20, 1997]
Taking the future
into our own hands
AMONG THE MANY meetings I have recently attended and addressed, I have little doubt that this one will bear the most significant impact on how Filipinos think, live and work in the next century
I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that few forces—political, economic or cultural—have shaped the world of the late 20th century as much as information technology (I.T.).
From a revolution in the computer laboratory, it has generated other revolutions in communications, education, entertainment, business and science. Indeed no field of knowledge has grown so much over the past decade as I.T.
An end to computer illiteracy
Where—ten years ago—many Filipinos may have looked upon computers as expensive toys or gadgets, today they loom as absolute necessities for the next generation of Filipinos to employ and to master.
And we will not be waiting long to feel this need acutely. I predict that within another decade, there can be no such thing as a computer-illiterate Filipino professional or student—unless we wish to be left behind in this century, while our neighbors march forward into the next.
As you probably know, I have always been a firm believer in—and an avid user of—information technology. Properly used, I.T. simplifies, speeds up and improves the quality of government immensely. It enables me to make better informed decisions; to evaluate more sharply defined alternatives; and to reach out at once to broader audiences and constituencies.
I realize, however, that much remains to be done to spread the benefits and the opportunities of this technology to the masses of our people. For most Filipinos, computers and communications devices remain prohibitively expensive appliances.
Nevertheless, we can less afford to neglect or to forgo I.T. than we can afford to bring it into the mainstream of Filipino life.
We have a plan to do exactly that; but beyond distributing hardware, it is equally important that we begin to educate our people on the nature, the uses, the processes and the culture of information technology.
Pillars of national strength
This is why we have devoted this First I.T. and Telecom Education Congress into conceiving a national infrastructure for teaching information technology.
And I commend the Department of Education, Culture and Sports, Department of Science and Technology, Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and other sponsors for putting their heads together in this effort. I take your coming here to mean your readiness to make changes in your own systems if this becomes necessary.
I also commend the New Educational Technologies Foundation for organizing this congress, and the Metro Manila office of the education department for its special support.
We have come far in our program of economic reform and development over the past five years. Today we can proudly claim our place as one of Asia’s most dynamic economies.
But beyond economic policy—and for us to stay on course—we must continue investing in the education of our people. Our program for national strengthening affirms this importance. Education (and health) is one of its six pillars, together with peace and security, the economy, the environment, foreign relations and political leadership.
New demands on education
Much is therefore expected from the agencies of Government here—the Department of Education, Culture and Sports, Department of Science and Technology, Commission on Higher Education, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority They are responsible for one of the pillars of our national strengthening.
On the whole, we must recognize that new demands are being placed on education by our economic growth, by our society’s needs and by our governing philosophy.
Education must begin from a view about what is needed to improve the life of the Filipino. Like other countries, we have adopted an economic order that views fair competition as the means for development and for promoting social well-being. This explains our insistence on a level playing field in the economy. Thus we have stopped invoking special privileges, special relations and other reasons when we transact business with other countries.
We are prepared to stand or fall depending on the quality of our work, products and services. Today the only acceptable measure of success is quality. We cannot shirk the challenge of quality if we wish to be globally competitive.
But the striving for excellence also serves a salutary social purpose—it encourages a culture of growth, it promotes well-being. Competition that is free and fair will cultivate excellence, and excellence can become one of a modernizing society’s and a modernizing economy’s strongest attributes.
The culture of competition demands special tools that will help us compete better. Thus we must look for, acquire, improve, and distribute such tools.
Today LT. is one of mankind’s most useful tools for doing things very well. LT. is being applied in increasingly more areas of human affairs. The technology is continuously being improved and more and more people gain access to its many forms and functions every day.
This is why we are calling on LT. to help in our development. We see information technology as a means to be globally competitive and to empower our people.
A National Information Technology Plan
We have found several ways of realizing this. We have approved a National Information Technology Plan (NTIP 2000) to help us achieve our strategic vision of “Philippines 2000.” The objective of the plan is to diffuse LT. in our society, and one of its main elements is education. Accordingly, education is represented in the body that carries out the plan—the National Information Technology Council. We have given priority to connecting us to the world information superhighway, which is being widely used for educational purposes.
I directed the Department of Education, Culture and Sports, the Commission on Higher Education and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority in 1995 to reorient their educational curricula in order to give more emphasis to LT. and other information-based programs.
Every year, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) allots slots for LT. in DOST-implemented scholarship programs such as DOST-SEI undergraduate program, Science and Technology Scholarship Act of 1994 and the engineering and science education program.
Let me just emphasize some of the reasons why we must use LT. in education as a means for national strengthening.
One reason is strategic. To do business in the world marketplace, we need LT. As I told the LT. Summit in 1995, LT. is our bridge to the future. Your work of teaching LT. is vital for us to know how to cross the bridge. We cannot continue using barangay roads to transport information, when even schoolchildren in many countries can use the Internet for that purpose. But we need more than a highway. We need a workforce that knows how to use it productively.
Another reason stems from the nature of our population. About 45 percent of our people are below 15 years of age-too young to work—as opposed to about 15 percent in developed countries.
This means that the work of one Filipino adult in supporting one Filipino child through school is being done by three adults in developed countries. This means that the Filipino teacher needs more technological support to do his or her job effectively.
The same is true for the Filipino as a worker who needs to be more competent so that he or she will profit from his labors wherever he or she might be.
Information technology in the classroom
Another reason is empirical. Using I.T. in the classroom is not a new idea. The technology has been tried very extensively in many countries, and the results have been very encouraging.
This is why it is crucial that the P675 million which we have appropriated in our 1996 national budget for computer education in public high schools, State colleges and universities and some private schools be used well.
And by this I certainly do not mean that we should go out on a computer-buying spree. The NTTP 2000 has many aspects apart from this, and they should all be studied and carried out faithfully.
No institution can replace the school in diffusing I.T. effectively, for the school is the only institution which the State has created that can reach every Filipino home. And we know how important the instructional process is for I.T. diffusion.
Therefore, I expect you to design an infrastructure for teaching I.T. in our schools. By infrastructure I do not mean a new facility, an office, a mechanism, a committee, or an organization. I mean a total system of ideas, processes, people and plans that will effectively support the use of I.T. in the classroom.
This system must be mass-based to serve the purpose of I.T. diffusion. It should use the private sector to take advantage of its drive and experience. It must be national, in recognition of the needs of all regions and the role of both public and private schools.
This infrastructure must be built upon the realities of our communities, classrooms and teachers today so that we are not simply carried away by the high-tech aspects and qualities of I.T.
But it must have the support of research and development centers, higher educational institutions and technical bodies to guarantee instructional adequacy.
12 elements of success
To succeed, it should bring together the following elements:
1) Centers for training teachers from both Government and private schools;
2) A network of specialists and trainers for teaching I.T. literacy and LT.-based methods, from both public and private sectors;
3) A network of sources of instructional materials for both students and teachers;
4) Student teaching laboratories—hardware and software and facilities;
5) A system of maintaining equipment;
6) A network of public and private teacher training institutions with major fields on the use of I.T. in the classroom. This will be the continuing source of new I.T. teachers;
7) Scholarship programs for those who will major in I.T. in public and private colleges and universities;
8) Research and development centers to address the problems of cost-effectiveness, relevance and currency of instructional approaches. This is a role for teacher training institutions and special R&D centers in Government agencies;
9) School managers who will plan, manage and evaluate the use of LT. solutions in the classroom;
10) Sources of affordable computers and other needed hardware;
11) Cheap Internet connectivity, for student hands-on experience; and
12) Linkages with the private sector. Of special value are computer educators whose experiences are vast and rich. We should do all we can to enlist them as partners. Whatever funds we have now should be used to lay the foundations of a national infrastructure for teaching LT. The system can grow with time and more funds. But you should lay the foundations now so that you will be more able and prepared, as more funds become available.
Some senators and congressmen may have some funds you need; persuade them that this is one of the best investments they will ever make in the future of their constituencies.
Our legacy to the future
My friends: you will agree with me that information is now the world’s most important resource. It is LT. that helps us direct and manage this resource. This is the simple but urgent reason why we should learn and use and teach it to others.
As we have been teaching generations of Filipinos how to fish, how to farm, how to use machines in 20th-century factories, the time has come for us to teach them how to take the future’s most vital resource into their own hands.
As the statement of the NET Foundation’s corporate philosophy puts it, “To make man live in harmony with I.T. and use it productively is now a mission of education.”
Let this be our collective mission—our collective legacy to the future generations.