Analysis and Opinion
By JoeAm
The Philippines is putting together a 5.2 trillion peso budget for next year. Money is allocated here and there with education being the biggest chunk. Few would argue that improvement in education is sorely needed.
That is the what of things.
But how is the money to be spent? On books or computers? On classrooms or technology? On ROTC or reading? And will kids be viewed as tools or people? Will they be told what to do or have choices? Rote learning or self-fulfillment?
That's the how of things, and I'd argue it is far more important than what.
Philippine Government is very bad at problem solving. Agencies are notoriously horrible at providing services. Applied automation is forbidden lest it put an end to the countless scams being undertaken by officials to boost their lousy salaries.
Do you know that if you do distance-learning one day per week, you have 20% less demand on classrooms? And if texts are in a laptop, the pages don't fall off during the third year of their passed-down usage? And there are apps that teach typing and English, and do exams without need for a number two lead pencil? Or sharpener?
The Government's budget department recently spent outrageous sums of money on expensive computers for teachers and they didn't work. Evidently it was the same guy who structured the Pharmally PPE rip-off. Crazy.
I've argued for computerized education in this blog before. Today I'm saying take it one step further. Manufacture standardized laptop computers in the Philippines. Two models, basic for elementary school, and powerful for high school and teachers. Put every text, homework assignment, and exam on those machines. Except handwriting and, okay, PE. Those can be off the machine.
Smart and Globe can provide the wifi.
Really, they can.
It is important to do things differently. We'll never go back to paper. Get rid of it. And stop muddling around. Be bold. Take charge.
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Photo from techradar.com, Best Laptops for Kids. The price of the Google Pixlebook Go shown is about $US500.
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