President Rodrigo Duterte plans to ask the Department of Education to replace textbooks in schools with tablets in an effort to modernize institutions and help children learn digital communications at an early age.
According to a report from Manila Bulletin, this also coincides with the administration’s goal of modernizing its services by putting most of government’s transactions, especially applications, online for everyone’s better access. “Sinabi ko na, online na lang (I said everything should be done online now). Passport, online. Clearances, online. Gamitin na ninyo (You should use it now) because it is the digital age,” he said.
With the initiative to replace textbooks with tablets containing PDF files of their learnings as well as educational activities, Duterte hopes that technology can aid in the early formation of children, as well as save more government funding in the long run. “Ang pag-asa natin ay ang mga anak natin (Our children are our hope). So they have to learn the basics about cyberspace and everything, digital communications,” Duterte said.
Duterte vows to find a way to allocate funds for this seemingly expensive vision. “And I will save enough money for this. It’s gonna be billions but I will save for something that is beneficial to our children,” he said.
This scenario is not the first of its kind in the country. We’ve known several schools and colleges in the country have already made the switch to Android tablets or iPads for reading materials such as St. Paul in 2010 and Meridian International College (MINT) since its start, as well as local publishers like Vibal starting to cater e-book materials to accommodate growing demand since 2012.
hindi pa rin magapantayan ng kahit anong technology ang mga textbooks.
Basta ok ang pagkaconvert to digital.. Yung ibang gawa kasi nagugulo ung data o pics tapos same price din charge ng school sa physical books kaya sure tubo hehe..
well magandang idea nga lang baka yan na naman pag ugatan ng kurapsyon over pricing ba, hehehe La Salle Greenhills eh syempre mga millionaryo mga estudyante dyan kaya nga nag tatrapik dyan eh dahil nga sa pag susundo ng mga nag aaral dyan, para sa akin sa panahong ngayon text books pa rin ang akma sa mag aaral pa natin, ang tablet mag bagsak lang pwede ng masira at 1 pa ang gadget na ngagailangan ng battery kung ma lobat paano na oo mag power bank pero katulad lang din kailangan din power, d tulad ng txt book hehehe walang lobat dyan,
Best solution will be something like Kindle… where an owner of ebooks has an online library and the ebooks can be downloaded to specific devices. Kindle has somehow been successful in implementing Digital Rights Management (DRM) which will ensure that the ebooks cannot be easily shared. This is to protect the rights of the AUTHOR… not exactly the book publishers.
In the issue of book piracy, it is the authors who suffer more than the book publishers.
Back to the topic, a Kindle-like infrastructure will also allow a BYOD type solution which is more appropriate for Filipinos considering the proliferation of cheap devices which can be easily availed. BYOD will also support the Filipino tradition of passing down older equipment to either the younger generation or the less fortunate.
I do hope this happens sooner than later.
That is good but the government should address and focus on infrastructure first. It is easy to say, “online na lang” when you don’t try to see how stable our internet infrastructure and how far-reaching it currently is.
La Salle greenhills during the time of GMA i think is the first school to use tablets. Engr Jun Lozada made this kind of deal with La Salle. This was done during the ZTE deal fiasco wherein he is the whistle blower.
Thats a good idea if implemented that is. Paper book cost more on this era of computers. Like the ebooks i buy cost only $14.55 but physical verision is around $25 bucks shipping not included yet. So you will meh~~~~
I think rather purchasing tablets is not a good idea due to maintenance cost and durability but rather a credit like scheme zero interest with discount? I think the market will be lively on this scheme lol. Of course it should be a free market for healthy trade reason.