The cyber school: a possible solution for future schooling in The Philippines

Mr Julito Contado Aligaen
Asuncion National High School
Asuncion, Davao del Norte, The Philippines

Current education scenario

The education divide in the Philippines is not as so high as in India five years ago and not even now as India narrows down education and as well as the digital divide. But the Philippines continues such an education divide in a very poor sector of the community because of the free education policy of the Government. Of the existing condition of the education system, the quality of education suffers because of the 60 to 70 students per classroom, which is far beyond manageable. Though the education divide is partially resolved, the quality of learning has suffered, especially in relation to the digital divide.

… in five years the number of the students per classroom will rise to 70 to 90 students.The population growth rate of the Philippines right now is 3.34% per annum, against a death rate of 1.8 %. The gross national product is only 1.6%. The present backlog of the school classrooms all over the country is 4,000 to 5,000, with a shortfall of 3,500 school teachers that is worsening. It is expected that in five years the number of the students per classroom will rise dramatically, to 70 to 90 students.

Changing demographics of the school

• There are more girls in school than boys because more boys are dropping out of school.
• One out of every three Filipinos aged between 6 and 24 has never been to school or have dropped out of school.
• 11.6 million Filipinos of 34% aged 6-24 has quit school prematurely or has never received any formal education.
• 18% of children have not been enrolled in primary school; 40% in secondary and 66% not enrolled in college.
• One in 10 Filipinos aged between10 and 64 cannot read or write at all.
• Females have a higher literacy of 90.4%, compared to males with 86.8 %.
• Two out of 10 Filipinos are functionally illiterate or lack  numerical skills.

How are we going to deal with this problem with the existing facilities and demand for learning? It is clear that an innovative solution is needed, such as an online learning curriculum for secondary students.

An online school, such as I propose, would:

• decongest the population of students in physical classrooms, allowing us to maintain a ceiling of only 40 students per classroom
• narrow down the education and digital divide through provision of an online curriculum
• encourage more school-based community telecenters
• shift the paradigm of learning from behavioral to constructivism.

How would we achieve this goal?

1. Cyber secondary schools

A national high school within every division or region can be designated as a cyber national high school, with the facilities as indicated in the framework shown in Figure 1. Each will be named as the regional host cyber school, and will cater for all secondary students enrolled in the online curriculum for second, third and fourth year students. Of course, first year students shall not be allowed to enrol in an online curriculum, since this group of students need technical preparation, so those students should first undergo classes in physical classrooms in their respective national high schools.

All secondary schools located within the country can accept enrolments from second to fourth year high schools. The number of enrolments and the master lists will be submitted online to the cyber host school. The name and email contact address of the teachers in every subject areas will be posted in all coordinating schools as a guide for the students to select teachers from the list. The teachers can apply for such subject load, with additional compensation or honorarium per subject area.

The host schools should also accommodate Asian students who might like to enrol in the online high school of the Philippine Secondary Cyber School.

Learning Management System (LMS) will be set up through the website of the cyber schools. The resources sections, such as the online library, resource links and discussion boards, as well as the teleconference/video conference for counselling, tutorials and instructions, will be provided online.

Human resource management in the cyber secondary school will still be provided by the Department of Education personnel management system. This is because the migration of the best teachers to other parts of the world, in search of better salaries, is already a problem in the Philippines. However, even those best Filipino teachers who have migrated could still be potential online teachers in the secondary cyber schools. While working abroad, providing quality education to other children in other countries, they can still serve Filipino students online. A remark from one Filipino teacher, who is currently teaching mathematics in a New York public school, said, ‘It is not only two-fold or three-fold the teaching skills we have now compared to before, thus we can serve our Filipino learners with world class curriculum across the horizon of education through online’. That’s a very inspiring word from them, and they are very happy that, in spite of being away from their home country, they can still serve the Filipino and even students from different races. Thus, the globalization of education is just a mile away.

2. Online Curriculum Development

An online learning module or curriculum of all the subject areas of Revised Basic Education should be developed to establish a standard online curriculum for the secondary students in public schools. With an intention to serve learners not only from the Philippines, an international standard curriculum will most likely be developed to so that students coming from different countries can enrol and earn a secondary course degree served by the Filipino online teachers.

Modular Model for Cyber Schools

There will be a paradigm shift of knowledge delivery from behavioral to constructivist methods of learning. The modular model should be in project-based learning design (PBL). The learning event, such as a webquest, treasure hunting and tele-collaborative will be done in PBL.

Why are we doing this? The speed of change has become a defining characteristic of the information age. The socioeconomic impact of this shift is global and far-reaching - connecting people, families, and local communities in new ways, while increasing global connectedness. The first part of the 20th century saw a fundamental shift from a predominantly agricultural economy to a manufacturing one. Similarly, the last part of the 20th century witnessed the advent of the personal computer and internet - technologies that galvanized the economy and paved the way for e-commerce. These economic shifts have had enormous impact on everyday life and work, yet our model for public education in the Philippines remains much as it has been for more than a century.

The current model for public education was created at the end of the 19th century, A basic grasp of the ‘three Rs’ (readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmetic) provided workers with a sufficient educational foundation to cope with the demands of a job. However, due to lack of research and development in the education sector, they keep on copying an education system structure that is now 70-90 per cent is not applicable to the Filipino community and somehow creates a gap between the learner and the subject. Now we are moving into environment where learners will learn in the relevant environment for the 21st century.