NextGen Day

The House of Representatives has passed the final reading approval of a bill to establish Public Schools of the Future in Technology to promote digital technology and innovation.

A total of 221 lawmakers voted in favor of House Bill No. 10329, or the Public Schools of the Future in Technology (PSOFT) Act, which aims to harness technological innovations, processes, and instruments in facilitating teaching and learning processes that would improve the performance of students and teachers, during Wednesday’s plenary session. No one voted against the bill, and no one voted no.

The bill’s author, Albay Representative Joey Salceda, said it aims to ensure that the country’s public schools receive adequate investment in digital and technological infrastructure.

“Higher-order skills from developing industries such as artificial intelligence, big data, and other frontier technologies will also be covered.” Of course, these reforms would necessitate an investment in teachers, which is something that this bill aims to achieve,” Salceda said.

The bill also strengthens the country’s fundamental education system, allowing for more online learning opportunities.

“Education and technology cannot be separated any longer.” “We need technology in schooling, and the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated this,” Salceda remarked.

The bill includes a provision requiring the Department of Education (DepEd), the Department of Information and Communication Technology, and the Philippine Space Agency to immediately incorporate the proposed law’s implementation into their respective programs, with funding coming from the annual General Appropriations Act.

Education changes, according to Salceda, are vital, especially as the country’s skills gap widens.

“The global economy has evolved into a skills-based and linked system. The majority of the world’s wealth is now information-based. I argued that knowledge is now the wealth of nations in a presentation to the Committee on Higher and Technical Education. “Our citizens will now have to compete with citizens from other countries,” Salceda explained.

He stated that assessments of Filipino pupils’ global competitiveness show “disappointing” outcomes.

He referenced the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, which revealed that the Philippines scored 353 in Mathematics, 357 in Science, and 340 in Reading, all below the OECD average.

“This is why we need to invest in infrastructure and education reform,” Salceda remarked.

The Philippine industries, according to Salceda, also worry about a lack of competent personnel.

“There are open seats in BPOs (business process outsourcing) because there aren’t enough Filipinos who can do more than deliver a passable English accent and genuinely address consumer problems.” “The makeup of our labor force reflects our skills gap,” he remarked.

Craft and related trades workers, he noted, represent only 6.4 percent of the workforce, despite their growth.

He claims that the country has 9.3% more managers than skilled workers.

He went on to say that more than a quarter of the country’s workforce is employed in “elementary occupations,” or those that demand fewer qualifications.

“We are a country of certificates, not necessarily of skills,” says the author. Consider this: our country has more managers than skilled workers. In a global economy dependent on abilities, this is unsustainable. We need to address this by implementing significant school reforms that place a greater emphasis on skills. Diplomas are “bouncing checks” if they aren’t backed up by real-world capabilities in our graduates, he says.

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