The Department of Education (DepEd), through its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) unit, said it is now utilizing modern technology to hasten the computerization efforts in schools and DepEd offices.
Among the ICT projects is the Enhanced Basic Education Information System (EBEIS), an online facility for encoding, storage, and report generation of all school information ? such as enrolment, resource inventories, and special programs.
DepEd secretary Armin Luistro said that moving towards an online and automated system of gathering data and putting it into a database provides the agency with more relevant and accurate information for decision-making and planning. He added that this is critical in managing a very large bureaucracy like DepEd.
Since its implementation in 2011 for public schools and 2012 for private schools, EBEIS has allowed for more updated data used in budget and program planning and implementation. It has allowed for use of 2-year old information for budget planning, as opposed to the 5-year data used in the previous years.
The EBEIS was a pilot project by the Australian Government for the Support for Philippine Education Reforms (Sphere) beneficiary Regions 6, 7, and 8 until its national implementation last 2011 and 2012.
Other ICT initiatives include the mapping of geo-location of schools nationwide. Of the 46,603 schools nationwide, 84 percent have already been mapped.
By getting the location coordinates of public schools, improved geographical data analysis can be made for DepEd schools. This program intends to aid in data collection, planning processes, and allocation of resources ? budget allocations per area, distribution of donations during disasters, etc.
Integrated in this ongoing geo-location project is the nationwide mapping of libraries and library hubs. This project aims to aid in providing learners and educators access to learning materials within their areas.
Of the 9,855 registered public schools with libraries, around 9,000 have already been mapped while 153 of the 188 library hubs in the country have also been geo-located.
Moreover, a collection of online teaching and learning materials are provided for in the Learning Resources Management and Development System (LRMDS) ? an online library developed by local and international education partners and even created by teachers themselves.
The learning materials made available online are free, and tied in to the curriculum to ensure relevance and appropriateness. It is a useful supplement to our continuing efforts to provide our teachers and students with the necessary learning resources.
Further, the whole system also intends to harvest materials developed by our own teachers with the intent of recognizing quality material and share it with fellow teachers and educators under an open sharing platform.
?These programs will help our learners have more access to relevant, up-to-date, and quality education materials. It also provides a database to our educators where they can derive their lessons from. These materials will assist them in their lesson plans, and may also give an array of contextualized classroom discussions,? Luistro said.
