The Textbook Evolution: Top educational publisher launches e-textbooks

Saturday, 18 June 2011 16:38

E-TEXTBOOKS will soon hit Philippine classrooms, and it is sooner than expected.

The leader in information and communications technology integration in education, Diwa Learning Systems, is laying the groundwork for the rollout of the country’s first e-textbooks. A number of schools get the first crack at this digital transformation of textbooks, which is expected to be available in school year 2012-13.

Two formats are being tested for all subjects: E-pub, short for electronic publication, is a free and open e-book standard by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IPDF), which works on most readers, and the PDF or portable document format.

The e-textbooks come with hyperlinks.  It also has zoom and enlarge capabilities for easier use. The company also added that the e-textbooks would eventually be far more than just a digital format of the printed textbooks.  Interactive features at the flip of every page and at the touch of a fingertip will also be added, like exercises, games, videos and tutorials.

“The company has been in the forefront of many innovations in educational materials, including textbooks.   Last school year the company introduced the Third Generation (3G) textbooks.

“This year we are laying the groundwork for another first from the company, the e-textbooks,” said Diwa Learning Systems executive director Jose Maria T. Policarpio.

The 3G textbooks are printed textbooks, which are supplemented by online activities and games available through the company’s resource portal, www.diwalearningtown.com

Indeed, the future is in our books.

Dean’s list

 Sunday, 19 June 2011 15:57 Dennis D. Estopace 

Seven years ago, Ricardo Lim, then the associate dean of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), was already talking about the tides of change sweeping the graduate-education market in the Philippines.

Despite its history and stature, AIM, he noted at that time, faces stiff competition from equally competent schools that were offering Master in Business Administration (MBA) courses.

Not long after, the tides indeed swept AIM as Asia’s premier business school became mired in its own labor, management and tenure issues.

Today Lim, one of AIM’s major pillars, had just been appointed dean to replace Victoria Licuanan. And the time’s ripe to revisit the thoughts he shared in 2004 and a view of the path he would lead the 53-year-old school in the next five to six years.

Here are nine things the BusinessMirror got from talking to Lim five days after he transferred to his new post at the educational institution at the heart of Makati’s central business district, where many captains of industry studied.

1 Aim high. Stressing that an MBA is still attractive not only on one’s curriculum vitae but also as training ground for business, Lim is eyeing a return to the AIM’s glory days when it had 180 students. That was in 1998. These days, AIM has 117 MBA students, which is just enough to fill two sections.

“We would like to hit three sections within the next [school] year, not this September,” he said.

More than numbers, Lim also wants a “good balance” in terms of nationalities.

Lim said a good percentage of these students would come from India, which now accounts for 60 percent of its student population. “Because India is successful economically, we can still expect they would still form the bulk of our students,” he said.

On the other side of the classroom, Lim said he also plans to continue hiring international faculty, as well as develop homegrown talent. The plan is to tap those who are finishing their doctoral dissertation as institute fellows, where they can have the school’s support.

“We will house them and give them a haven. Of course, in return we hope they would teach at AIM,” he said.

Lim added that AIM would also continue tapping visiting faculty, which he said is not expensive as hiring them full-time.

He noted that providing an annual salary upward of $25,000 for full-time faculty is considered low as per industry standards.

“For a Filipino teacher, that’s a lot of money. But for a Korean or a Hong Kong professor, that’s slave wages,” he said.

Keeping such lofty standards justifies the steep tuition AIM charges: $16,000 a year for a two-year MBA course.

2 Swing low. But Lim keeps his expectations in check, in view of the competition for students, as well as faculty.

That’s because most Asians are still partial to American business schools. AIM tried recruiting students in China, he said, but the preference for US schools is still strong.

“Southeast Asia still has this mentality that the best business schools are in the US so they tend to send their top guns there,” he explained.

Nonetheless, since the US economy is not exactly in tip-top shape these days, Lim believes this offers opportunities for Asian business schools to emerge as attractive alternatives.

However, this is also spurring competition at home. Lim noted that some schools like De La Salle University and Ateneo de Manila are now becoming aggressive in the market for MBA students.

“And they have products that are a third of the price than ours,” he added.

The entry of foreign schools and those offering alternative—online—courses keep AIM on its toes.

“[Competition] is waxing and waning, on an ebb and flow, but continues to be relevant and intense,” he said.

3 See the forest for the trees. While these are threats to AIM, Lim said he considers these challenges—and he’s more than willing to face them.

“As dean, it’s a much bigger kingdom-looking. As associate dean, I had the luxury of focusing on specific customer segment—young business school students—and on delivering a standard school product called the MBA,” he said.

Now he’s more focused on the “un-business, nonprofit type of endeavors in our development.”

“I’m looking at research, not to do much with business practice but with environment, with corporate social responsibility, corruption and governance, and a wide range of issues, some of which are connected with business, some are not and go beyond running a business,” he explained.

He’s also tasked with “making sure there is quality across the board, in the faculty you employ and the learning in the classroom.”

“More than ever before I look at these things now because I’m answerable to, all of a sudden, seven to eight times more different people—constituents and stakeholders—than ever before. It’s raised one whole level of complexity,” Lim said.

He cites a quote from baseball great Yogi Berra, who once said, “When you come across a fork in the road, take it.”

“I always felt when there’s a challenge, I take it. I test myself. When I was asked to write a book, The Phinma Story [in 1996], I’ve never written before but I plunged head on and it turned out well,” he said.

4 Never lose sleep. Despite the daunting challenges, Lim said surprisingly he’s been sleeping more soundly since becoming dean. Aside from becoming more mature, he said he doesn’t have time to agonize over things that he can’t control.

“Another difference between being an associate dean and dean is the opportunity that you can be more detached since you’re more into the overall picture and direction-setting,” he said.

Likewise, he doesn’t sweat the small stuff like being required to have a Doctor of Philosophy degree. That was an issue against his predecessor Licuanan. But Lim shrugs it off not because he has a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Southern California but because he believes it’s not a major factor.

He cited his alma mater, which he said had, at one point, an investment banker as its dean. The banker didn’t even have a master’s degree but he was brought in to raise funds and unite faculty—which he did, Lim said.

“Having a PhD is not the all-single formula; you need to hire somebody to get the work done. Having said that, I hope I’m one of those good administrators who set targets and get things done. But, of course, you need an academic in a dean to understand the people he’s managing,” Lim said.

“Maybe the AIM board felt I have enough of both academic and administrative expertise.”

5 Be honest. Lim acknowledged that there are differences among faculty, especially on the issue of tenure, and that some of these have been brought to the courts for resolution.

AIM removed the tenure system three years ago, according to Lim, to test it, citing some schools in Hong Kong and the US as models.

“I don’t know if it’s a detrimental decision. It’s too early since we just instituted this new system recently. We’re still trying to find out if there are other things that could motivate good faculty to come here apart from tenure and salary. There may be other factors involved,” he said.

But he admits that tenure has been asked by young faculty wanting to teach in the AIM.

“Of course, young people would want to have tenure. We tell them, ‘No.’ But we reserve the right to institute it in the future. But it’s not like we hide it. We make it clear that we’re trying a new system where there’s no tenure,” he said.

There are still no plans to reinstitute tenure for incoming faculty, he added.

Lim added, however, that while differences among faculty exist, he hopes that by focusing on quality, rigor, brand, and taking pride on AIM, “temporarily all legal troubles would be forgotten.”

“I hope we can rally around to see an exciting future for AIM so that faculty members can do more exciting things like research and new techniques,” he said.

6 Stop worrying about the atomic bomb. Lim is currently reading Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb by Richard Rhodes and A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.

Rhodes’s book is about the making of the atomic bomb, which Lim describes as “very scientific—not so much on the event itself or how its explosion created horrendous consequences.”

“It’s about how [Robert] Oppenheimer was able to marshal these brilliant minds and negotiate with the army despite the fact they’re eggheads,” he said.

Lim’s eyes sparkled while explaining that the book also tells of “managing Nobel laureates with big egos and big personalities.”

For Lim, what’s always interesting are the personalities. Bryson’s book, for instance, details the inventors and originators of the common things we see today.

While he gets ideas from these nonfiction books, especially history and biographies, for his work, Lim said he reads more for pleasure.

“I like to sit down in a secluded corner with my iPad and with nobody bothering me,” he said.

For work, “I go on the Web, which is a nice little maze where you can connect things together to learn. I read a combination of news and academic reports.”

7 Keep a sense of humor. But keep it to yourself and your close friends, Lim said, noting that being dean has upped his public stature a notch higher. He discovered this after posting something “vividly irreverent” on an online social network site.

Still, when asked him about the Three Stooges poster and the cartoon strips cut from newspapers at his old office, Lim’s eyes lit up and suddenly remembered the simple humor.

Competition’s tough enough and just because he’s now the dean, Lim doesn’t have to be stiff also.

(Photo by Roy S. Domingo)

Rx for procrastination

By Queena N. Lee-Chua
Philippine Daily Inquirer  
6:05 pm | Sunday, June 12th, 2011 

 MANILA, Philippines – AS A TEACHER for more than 20 years now, I believe that the most common problem of students is not bullying, cheating or drug abuse. Those three are insidious, but procrastination may be the most prevalent. Derived from the Latin roots pro (forward) and crastinus (tomorrow), procrastination has been in the Oxford English Dictionary since the mid-1500s.

Procrastination is so widespread in schools that the novelist Eliyahu Goldratt dubbed it “student syndrome” in his book “Critical Chain.” Students who suffer from this syndrome delay doing a task until right before deadline. They work on a paper just before it is due and, for lack of time, often resort to cutting and pasting passages from other sources, without proper attribution. They cut classes to print out their papers and, when something goes awry, blame the printer, the ink cartridge, even the dog.

Cramming
Cramming is classic procrastination. A student we will call Ana failed a major test. She cried, “But I studied, I really did!” Yes, she did but this is how Ana and her friends tackled four chapters of more than a hundred pages. They listened to the lectures but did not take notes.

Thinking they understood the lessons, they did not open the textbook for a month. At 7 p.m. before the exam, they held a group study at Ana’s house.

“We did not sleep at all,” Ana wailed. “We studied for 12 hours straight, up to 7 a.m. the next morning.” They were shocked that they failed. I was shocked that they expected to ace the test given their poor study habits.

During the test, Ana said she remembered reading the terms the night before, but forgot the links between ideas. Human short-term memory can easily recall seven items, more or less. Tests cover more than seven things.

Ana and her friends tried to force hundreds of ideas into their minds in a short time. They did not succeed. Nobody could.

For long tests, cramming does not work. Unless humans become robots with infinite memory and speedy processing, cramming never will.

What did Ana do to redeem herself? Under my strict guidance, she read her textbook every single day, a few pages at a time. She took notes and asked questions in class. A couple of days before the next exam, she reviewed the main ideas.

She did not have a group study session this time, because “we wasted time chatting about other things.” Instead of being panicky and stressed out, she was calm during the test. Not surprisingly, she got a well-deserved A.

Causes
What makes students procrastinate? Causes vary from anxiety, low self-esteem and depression to poor impulse control, self-defeating mentality, and even a defective prefrontal cortex.

But the most likely reason is most students overestimate their abilities to meet deadlines, and underestimate the time needed for reflection and understanding.

Ideally, students should be able to pace themselves, and not cram. But when I tell my students not to procrastinate, they only smile guiltily. Thus, I have decided to save my students from themselves, as much as possible.

I usually give them a timeline, asking them to submit smaller tasks at regular intervals, instead of one big chunk at once. For a term paper due at the end of a semester, I ask them to submit an outline by the end of June, a review of literature by July, a first draft by August, a second draft by September, and the final copy by October. I make suggestions and revisions, and expect each succeeding submission to be better than the last.

Some students are perfectionists. They will not continue a task unless they feel that everything is going fine (an impossibility in the academe and, I daresay, in the real world).
I once had a student who could not write beyond the first paragraph. He agonized over every single word and punctuation mark, so much so he could not write anything at all because “nothing was good enough.” I counseled him to relax, “just do it!” and to revise his work later.

Help
As a new school year begins, the best resolution students can make is to beat procrastination, once and for all.

Here are some tips:
Make a deal with yourself to work on a task for 15-20 minutes. Once you get started, momentum kicks in and you will usually continue the work.

Minimize distractions. Surveys by Tim Pychyl, director of the Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University in Canada, show that the worst procrastinators are those distracted by e-mail, social networking, computer games. Shut them all off, he says. You can check them after you have finished your work.

Break down huge tasks into smaller pieces. Ana did well on the test by reading the book slowly, in chunks, steadily, every day, instead of trying to finish everything in one night.
Prioritize. Most students concentrate on subjects they like, and put off doing the homework they hate. This is the exact opposite of what achievers do. Good students focus their energies and time on difficult assignments first and, afterwards, devote their remaining resources to easier tasks. Since the latter is naturally pleasurable, students will not delay doing them.

Seek advice from teachers on difficult tasks. A student we will call Pedro did not submit any requirement. He asked me later on for “extra work” to raise his final grade. He said he “did not know how to do the homework.”

Unfortunately, he never consulted at all during the semester, so I had to tell him that, if he could not do regular assignments, there was no way he could understand the extra work, as it would be a lot more complex.

Contrast Pedro’s behavior with his classmate Pepe’s. Although Pepe also found the requirements challenging, he consulted me several times. He submitted an excellent project.

To students, teachers, parents and other readers, e-mail me how you overcame procrastination, or helped others do so. I will feature the most helpful suggestions in a future column.

Have a great school year!

E-mail the author at blessbook@yahoo.com.

‘Everything in education is a pressing problem’, DepEd Secretary discovers

Philippine Daily Inquirer
6:47 pm | Sunday, June 5th, 2011 

The Aquino administration draws a bead on the Philippines’ daunting education problems.

HAVING PAID many an unexpected school visit in various cities, towns and islands in the country, the 49-year-old education secretary says he has seen places and faces that, for him, compensate for the ugly statistics.

Luistro cites teacher Lorna Pulalon who died shielding her students from the knife of a pardoned ex-convict in October last year at Talisayan Elementary School in Zamboanga City. She was the same teacher, he adds, who had the strength of character to refuse a bribe in a previous barangay election, even though she was the sole breadwinner for her large family.

A village thing
He talks of parents who, every year during Brigada Eskwela (BE) week, take leave from their jobs to help refurbish and ready their children’s schools for reopening. They bring their own materials, tools and food. “It’s a community effort,” Luistro says. The BE program proves that it does take a village to educate a child, he discloses.

He recalls with sadness the death of a construction worker from a bad fall. The man showed up at his kids’ school in San Pedro, Laguna, on BE week to help out. He was a single parent who never finished school himself, but was determined to give his two children an education.

“It is not right that individuals like him and the Mindanao teacher, ordinary people who struggle and do their share to better the education we give our kids, are lost in the big numbers and the bad news,” says Luistro, who lost his own parents at a young age, and was brought up by an educator grand-aunt.

For every complaint about a principal who orders students to pick coconuts from a tree so he will have money for beer, there is a principal who gives of her own money so a student can get a haircut. He has seen this with his own eyes, he says, and it’s an image far different from the one he has been presented.

So much with so little
“My experience is that our most creative principals, while they are lacking in basic things, are able to run their schools sometimes even better than in areas where there are lots of resources. I am surprised that, with so little, they can do so much,” says Luistro, who was himself a principal at La Salle Lipa for many years.

It may or may not have anything to do with his being a religious brother, but Luistro has attracted all sorts of assistance.

“The department has so many challenges but, at every instance, people come to help, without prodding. I call them angels,” he says.

More companies are earmarking their corporate social responsibility funds for education programs. Some give one-time donations through the Adopt-A-School, a program that dangles tax-deduction incentives to companies and individuals willing to bankroll donations of goods, services and funds to public schools. These include local high profile firms like Jollibee which dabbles in school-feeding and build-a-classroom projects, SM Foundation, scholarships and school-building program, and Bato-Balani Foundation, which maps the needs of the country’s public schools for easy reference.

The multisectoral 57-75 Movement has launched through the Children’s Hour the Bayanihang Pampaaralan, which is committed to building 10,000 classrooms.

Aklat Gabay at Aruga Tungo sa Pag-Angat at Pag-asa Foundation, under the leadership of Pinky Aquino Abellada, one of President Aquino’s sisters, is building 1,000 preschool classrooms, thanks to partnerships with such high-profile companies as Aboitiz and Belo Clinic.

Word of honor
Then there is Katsutoshi Shimizu, the Japanese businessman who had sought out Luistro and said he wanted to fund the building of new classrooms in the Philippines, which he considers his second home. Two weeks before finalizing the agreement, the tsunami happened in Japan. A month and a half after that disaster, Shimizu returned to see Luistro.

“I told him to direct his donation back to Japan because they have an emergency situation there,” recalls Luistro.

But Shimizu would not hear of it. He gave his word of honor, he said, and the sum of P7.4 million had been earmarked by his foundation for building and furnishing classrooms in towns in Batangas. Luistro says he will never forget Shimizu.

Textbook watch
The secretary also invited Antonio Calipjo-Go, a media-savvy school-owner who fancies himself a textbook watchdog, to a dialogue with all the DepEd textbook suppliers. Luistro says he asked the publishers one question: Do you want Mr. Go to critique your books before, or after they are published? Today, publishers are enjoined to give Go the proofs of textbooks prior to printing. If Go, who is saddled with legal cases as a result of his crusade, finds factual and grammatical errors, the publisher is reportedly asked to make corrections before going to press.

“In other instances, you would have to pay somebody to do that,” notes Luistro, who ostensibly trusts Go, despite the string of government and private sector lawsuits against him. “But here we have Mr. Go doing it for free because he cares.”

Today when he reads news that normally would leave him exasperated and depressed, says the Lasallian brother, “I know better, I know the situation is not hopeless.”

Three times a week, Luistro sits down with his executive team of four undersecretaries and three assistant secretaries. “I do not make decisions without their concurrence,” he says. “My management style is collaborative.”

Once a month, they have a meeting with regional DepEd officials. He says different advisory councils are also being formed to thresh out the concerns of specific sectors, including students with disabilities, indigenous people and street children.

All this may not be really good news to some people, he says, but unless he is able to connect to the people on the ground, the problems will seem to him too complicated to handle. For now, he doesn’t feel alone.

Here is an excerpt from the rest of the Inquirer’s interview with the DepEd secretary:
How are you doing so far in with regards to solving the shortage in classrooms, teachers and textbooks?

Shortages are a moving target, so we have to validate the shortages every year based on actual enrollment. By July, we will have actual figures from enrollment data for this school year.

I believe—based on initial figures of new construction plus commitments made by LGUs—that we would have substantially addressed a significant percentage of the shortage in classrooms, furniture and sanitation facilities. Within this school year, we will be able to identify new commitments from our partners that will give us hope of filling the previous years’ gaps.

The good news is that we will be able to supply, within this year, all textbook requirements in the five core subjects per grade level. But the actual delivery of textbooks to those schools with missing volumes will be delayed, maybe until October, due to requirements relating to bidding and printing.

We have hired the first batch of 10,000 teachers for the opening of classes. A second batch of up to 5,000 more will be processed.

We also have more than 12,000 classrooms lined up for construction this year.

The DepEd has signed agreements with the leagues of municipalities, cities and provinces for a 50-50 sharing in school construction. How will this impact the shortage of classrooms.

The total value of the counterpart funding for school building construction with the League of Municipalities, League of Cities and League of Provinces is P428.6 million. This means we are looking at some 612 new classrooms.

I had dinner recently with Congresswoman Marivic Alvarado (Bulacan, 1st District) who brought along her husband. He (Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado) is the governor of Bulacan. The province is willing to fund so many millions worth of new classroom construction if we give them the counterpart funding. It will be the fourth province after CamSur, Albay and Batangas to commit to working toward a zero backlog. Cities like Dipolog, Iligan and Ligao are also moving up-front with 50-50 funding.

What is the most pressing problem in public education today?

Let me first make a distinction between “pressing” and “critical.” The pressing problem has to be attended to immediately; the need is here and now. As it is, everything in DepEd seems to be a pressing problem. But the critical need is in the system itself. It may not seem as urgent but it is more essential that we deal with it. This is why I’ve been pushing for the K+12 program.

We can build all the classrooms we think we need, but if our vision is for kids to finish 10 years of basic education and then go to college, we will still be faced with the problem of poor-quality college graduates. We will still, as a people, have the mind-set that if we don’t go to college, we won’t be able to work. Many companies will still require even clerks to have gone to college. Why? We do not see our basic education system as providing all the basic learning that we need to be able to earn a living, have a meaningful life, etc. College preparation, that’s how we look at basic education.

The fact is, even in the most developed countries, only 20 to 30 percent of the population go on to college for degrees, because not everyone is cut out for the intellectual rigors of university studies. They recognize that higher education requires a whole different set of skills.

You’re saying students are forced to go to college because the elementary and high school education they receive is inadequate?

Yes and, consequently, the quality of our college graduates is also poor. Our students have to take a lot of remedial lessons in college instead of doing the real college work. This also explains the proliferation of diploma mills that cater to those who want a degree, even if they do not have the intellectual capacity for it.

College is an option for everybody, of course. But the government must provide the opportunity for all Filipinos to have the basic education that they need to be ready for work, ready for community engagement, ready for life—even if they don’t go to college.

But shouldn’t students be staying in school for longer hours instead of longer years?

The three shifts of classes are only true in schools in urban centers where, even if you have the money to build more classrooms, there is no land. In some provinces, we do not have a shortage of classrooms and teachers.

If you look at the national figures, the need is for more classrooms. But there is an underlying cause for this. We have been unable to provide opportunities in their hometowns so people are coming to the city. The parents come to the city looking for jobs. The best schools are perceived to be those in the cities.

If we want to reverse the situation, we must build schools everywhere that are at par with urban schools. That’s one part. We must also make sure that our curriculum, once the returned migration has happened, matches the development plans of the province.

My best discussions are at the provincial level. Governors have asked me what my plans are. I throw the question back at them: What are yours? Are you going to stay agricultural? Will you do food processing? Do you need employees for BPOs in the next five years? Whatever the case, we will tailor our high school program so we can supply you with the needed manpower.

What is the status of the public consultations on the K+12 proposal?

The K+12 Steering Committee held an education summit recently to update our major stakeholders, including our legislators, on the feedback on the K+12 proposal. There is majority support from the 17 regional consultations but we feel we need to cascade the information to our school divisions and, eventually, the 45,000 schools, within the first semester of this year. The legislators have given their support for the fast-tracking of the necessary amendments to allow us to fund the K+12 proposal.

Which expense has received the biggest chunk of the DepEd’s P207-billion budget this year?

Of the DepED budget, 80 percent goes to salaries of teachers and staff, so there is really very little left for capital outlay and maintenance. Our personnel services allocation (salaries and wages) of P165.4 billion has increased by 17 percent from 2010 due to additional teacher items and increases in salaries brought by the second tranche of the new government salary standard. An additional P2.26 billion is allocated for annual salaries for new teacher items.

What is the scope of the present DepEd feeding program?

A significant number of elementary schools, in partnership with the PTAs, LGUs or other industry partners, have included a feeding program in their campuses. This year, we would like to scale this up, but concentrate on the 40 divisions with 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) beneficiaries. Eventually, we would like to pursue a school-based feeding program that is supplied by the vegetable gardens we will be launching this school year.
How does DepEd choose the sites for public schools?

As a general rule, we rely on the local government to provide the site, or on donations of land from private individuals.

We have thousands of cases where a property that was donated two generations ago is now being claimed back by the present generation because the area has prospered and the land value has increased. So now we have a section in the department that takes care of the titling of donated properties.

Some private schools that have been struggling financially, have approached us to offer use of their school buildings. We are looking at the legalities.

If you have a lot with a building and you allow us to use it, we will be happy to do so. What we are not allowed to do is to build a structure on land that has not been donated to us, or to repair a structure that we do not own.

What is the enrollment figure now for kindergarten students?

In January, early registration for kindergarten was at 1.2 million. We expect around 500,000 will enroll in private schools. If trends continue, we will have another 500,000 enrolling in our Summer Kinder program in the summer of 2012. The remaining 200,000 are the ones we would like to see enrolled in day-care centers, that will be used as extension kinder classrooms in the afternoon.

DepEd chief’s classes opening memo to all department officials

ISSUED on May 25, 2011, the following is Secretary Armin Luistro’s “General Guidelines on the Opening of Classes” memo to the Department of Education undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, bureau directors, directors of services, centers, and heads of units, regional directors, schools division/city superintendents, heads of public elementary and secondary schools and others concerned.

It is interesting to know exactly how Mr. Luistro framed his thoughts and policy and management ideas to achieve the tasks DepEd is required to perform.

***
1. Pursuant to the Constitutional mandate to provide all Filipino learners with free basic education in public elementary and secondary schools, and to achieve the country’s targets for the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on universal primary education and this Department’s objective of Education for All (EFA) in 2015, there is an urgent need to minimize, if not to eliminate, financial constraints among parents/guardians during the opening of classes, and to implement effective school/classroom management.

2. Accordingly, the implementing policies on the collection of voluntary school contributions (VSCs) shall be strictly observed.

a. No fees shall be collected from schoolchildren in Kindergarten up to Grade 4 anytime during the School Year (SY) 2011 -2012.

b. No fees shall be collected from Grade 5 pupils to Fourth Year high school students from June to July 2011. However, starting August 2011 until the end of this SY, the contributions shown in the table below may be collected only on a voluntary basis.

c. The Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) may collect contributions starting August only after presenting to their members and to the school head/principal a Report on the Utilization of the Previous School Year’s Collections and the SY 2011-2012 Proposed Budget with Program of Activities taking into account the following:

i. The amount of contributions to the PTA shall be agreed upon during the General Assembly pursuant to DepEd Order No. 54, s. 2009; and shall be concurred to by the school head/principal. (The concurrence of the school head/principal on the amount of voluntary school contributions shall not be interpreted as those collections being mandatory payments.)

ii. The PTAs are enjoined to refrain from setting exorbitant amounts for voluntary school contributions. In consideration of the many expenses that parents incur in sending their children to school, the PTAs are encouraged to minimize the amount of contributions for graduation ceremonies and extra-curricular activities as well as minimize requests for in-kind contributions. \

iii The contributions to the PTA shall be’ on a per member basis, regardless of the number of children that the member has enrolled in the school; and!

iv. The PTAs are encouraged to open and maintain a bank account to manage its collections and budget as much as possible.

d. The publication of a school newspaper, although not mandatory, is strongly encouraged in line with the promotion of the campus journalism program at the elementary and secondary levels. The school publication fee shall be set at the school level. Every elementary pupil shall not pay more than Sixty Pesos (PhP60.00), and every high school student, Ninety Pesos (PhP90.00) per DepED Order No. 19, s. 2008.


e. No teacher, school official nor school personnel shall collect fees or contributions, nor shall they be entrusted with the safekeeping and disbursement of collections made by the PTA pursuant to the Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers (as provided for in Article XI of Republic Act No. 7836), teachers shall not act, directly or indirectly, as agent of, nor be financially interested in any commercial venture, of which they can exercise official influence. Hence, teachers, school officials and school personnel are prohibited from selling or requiring the purchase of locally-produced workbooks, instructional materials, test booklets, school supplies and other items.


f. The membership fees for student/pupil organizations shall be set by the organization subject to existing school policies on student organizations.

g. If the collection of school publication fees and other club memberships are coursed through the PTA as requested by the concerned organization, the amount collected shall immediately be remitted to the school or organization on the day of collection. No service fee should be charged to the school or pupil/student organization by the PTA.

h. It is stressed that in no case shall non-payment of voluntary school contributions be made as a basis for non-admission, non-promotion or non-issuance of clearance to a student by the school concerned.

i. Non-compliance of the provisions on the Collection of Voluntary School Contributions shall be a ground for cancellation of the PTA’s recognition and/or filing of appropriate charges as the case may be.

3. The implementing policies on the enrolment to be strictly observed are as follows:
a. During the opening of classes, the school heads/principals shall ensure that Grade 1 pupils and First Year high school students who registered on January 29, 2011 are in school. In cases when there are no schools in the area, the mobile learning facilitator of the Alternative Learning System (ALS) shall provide educational services to these learners;

b. Grade 1 pupils should be six (6) years old by June and not later than October 2011. The certification of birth from the local registrar shall be the documentary basis for enrolment and should be submitted on or before December 2011;

c. Children who are younger than six (6) years old by six (6) months may be admitted to Grade 1 provided that their readiness for school has been assessed (with positive results) by the school where they are applying for admission through the School Readiness Assessment Tool in relation to DepED Order No. 25, s. 2007.

d. All Grade 1 pupils and First Year high school students who did not register on January 29, 2011 need to enroll before or during the opening of classes;

e. Those pupils or students who are promoted to the next grade or year level are considered automatically enrolled for the coming school year in the same school; .

f. Those pupils or students who wish to transfer to a public school from another public school or from a private school shall bring their Form 138 (Report Card) to the school where they intend to transfer. If this document is not available, the child can be admitted on the condition that the Report Card shall be submitted not later than the end of the First Grading Period;

g. The class size should range from a minimum of 15 pupils/students to a maximum of 60 pupils/students per class. Classes from Grades 1 to 4 should not exceed 40 pupils per class in order to keep the teaching-learning process more manageable during these foundation years of schooling whenever possible.

h. The specific provision of DepEd Order No. 32, s. 2003 which gives priority preference for admission to new entrants who are residents of the locality where the school is located subject to the average and maximum class size stated in Item 3.g, is retained;

i. In schools where there are oversized classes, school heads/principals shall utilize alternative delivery modes such as the modified in-school, off-school approach, e-impact, DORP (Drop-Out Reduction Program) print modules,e-modules computer-assisted instruction (CAI) among others;

j. The most competent and/or the most experienced teachers shall be assigned to run the alternative delivery modes; and

k. The provision on the Adoption of Double Shift Policy to address classroom shortages, as provided for in DepED Order No. 62, s. 2004, subject to the above cited average and maximum class size, shall be maintained.

4. The implementing guidelines on the wearing of student uniform and identification (ID) cards are the following:

a. The wearing of a school uniform shall not be required in public schools. Students with existing uniforms may continue using these uniforms, if they so desire, in order to avoid incurring additional costs for new attire; and

b. ID cards shall be provided to students at no cost on their part. \ The school head/principal shall fund these ID cards from its Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE).

5. The policies on the distribution of instructional materials such as textbooks and other learning resources are as follows:

a. The school head/principal shall ensure that textbooks and learning packages available in the schools shall be distributed to all the pupils or students. Reading materials in the library hubs shall be maximized for instruction; and i

b. Teachers in schools with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment and materials shall utilize these for multiple delivery formats such as large group workshops, small group discussions, and individualized instruction to develop self-directed learning.

6. The release of MOOE in cash advance to schools shall be guided by this policy: schools division/city superintendents (SDSs) are directed to release MOOE funds to schools without fiscal autonomy in the form of cash advance and in adequate amounts proportional to the enrolment size to ensure that the operating funds are available at the start of the school year.

7. The guidelines on the monitoring of the implementation of this DepEd Order are as follows:

a. The schools division/city superintendents (SDSs) and the school heads are directed to implement this Order. The regional director (RD) shall monitor the implementation of these policies; and

b. Every school head must submit to the respective Division Office (DO) a letter of compliance together with the School Monitoring Report on or before July 29, 2011. In turn, every schools division/city superintendent (SDS) is required to submit the Division Consolidated Report on Compliance and Non-compliance of their Schools to this Order to the Undersecretary for Regional Operations on or before August 15, 2O11, copy furnished the RD.

8. Any violation of this Order by any teacher, school official or school personnel shall be dealt with administratively, pursuant to DepED Order No. 49, s. 2006, otherwise known as the “Revised Rules of Procedure of the Department of Education in Administrative Cases.

9. All previous issuances which are inconsistent with the provisions of this DepEd Order are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.

10. These guidelines shall remain in force and in effect during the succeeding school years until revised or repealed.

11. Immediate dissemination of and compliance with this Order is directed.

BR. ARMIN A. LUISTRO FSC
SECRETARY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

PH basic education now follows K–12 curriculum

BY MARIA NIKKA U. GARRIGA REPORTER

HOW will school-opening day tomorrow under the Aquino administration differ from school-opening day under the previous administration?

For one, the Philippines will start following the K-12 basic education curriculum.

With this, the Philippines ceases to be the only country in Asia that does not follow the basic-education length of schooling standard in the US and Europe.

Overcrowding, insufficient seats and tables and not enough classrooms to accommodate the influx of over 22.5 million public school students are just some of the issues that annually plague the opening of public elementary and secondary schools in the country for the past decade.

The perennial problems in basic education have greeted the growing number of students and parents alike each year despite efforts of the Education department (DepEd) to address the longing of every student for more seats and tables; better school facilities; and enough teachers to support the everyday rigors of learning.

But beyond stating the obvious is the question of what changes and improvements have been undertaken following the change in the administration of the government’s largest bureaucracy.

New and strengthened policies
In his first year seated as head of the basic education sector, Education Secretary Armin Luistro took-over the job by introducing changes at the same time strengthening policies turned-over by his predecessor Jesli Lapus.

Among the continued programs from the previous office is the much intensive campaign for resources mobilization particularly in public-private partnerships (PPPs). The local governments were likewise given its own share of freeing the gap in education resources.
In line with this, the department has inked partnership agreements with the Leagues of Provinces, Cities and Municipalities of the Philippines for a 50-50-percent sharing on the cost of classroom construction.

A group of corporations has likewise pledged along with others to build some 10, 000 classrooms in 40 priority school divisions in a span of two years to aid in the lack of classrooms in the public education sector.

The “Bayanihang Pampaaralan” project of the 57-57 Movement is targeting to consolidate classroom building efforts and direct funds to the construction of classrooms in areas that are most in need of assistance.

The budget allocated for DepEd for 2011 increased by about 19 percent from P172 billion to P207 billion.

However, it could hardly match the resource requirements of at least one million new entrants to the public school system every year, prompting the department’s continued to appeal for everyone to invest in education by supporting its programs.

Bro. Luistro has also ordered changes that supports President Aquino’s desire to see things according to the letter of the law or at least the rules. Sec. Luistro ordered the strict implementation of the 180 academic days, which renders less time for extra-curricular activities and more contact time between students and teacher. He also ordered that training programs particularly those conducted by non-DepEd organizations be strictly supervised.

New officials ushered into the department are now required to have passed the Civil Executive Service board exam prior to being given the position. They will have more tasks to accomplish because there is a slowdown in the hiring consultants. The officials are also new required to visit at least one school when they go on out-of-town trips.

Resource gaps
The Education secretary announced last week that one serious problem can now be crossed out of the list: the recurring textbook shortage.

By October this year, the book to student ratio in the core subjects of Science, English, Filipino, Math and History will be at 1:1. The department rushed the re-printing of needed textbook titles in time for the school opening tomorrow (Monday).

Efforts are now focused on addressing the four other key areas in basic education where gaps are still massive—teachers, classrooms, school furniture (seats and tables) and toilets.

There is still a shortage of 103, 612 elementary and secondary school teachers; 66, 800 classrooms; 2, 573, 212 school furniture and 146, 000 toilets.

This year’s classroom and furniture shortage is exactly the same last year’s. But the shortage of toilets and teachers has increased. More than 10,000 toilets are needed now than last year.

And the school system needs 2,000 more teachers this year.

This can be attributed to the increase of student population in the public school sector from last year’s 19, 717, 101 to about 22.5 million this year.

Local governments have pledged to hire some 50, 000 teachers to serve in their localities this school year making up for the shortfall, while the department has signed agreements with the selected government agencies to utilize confiscated illegally-cut lumber for use in making school furniture.

Under this agreement dubbed “P-Noy Bayanihan” project, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources will be providing confiscated logs and lumber. The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) will get the seats and desks made. And the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) will fund the project, the retrofitting of existing facilities and the initial operating expenses to get the agreement going. PAGCOR has also donated to DepEd its broken slot machines whose usable parts have been turned into school furniture.

Some 250, 000 seats and tables will be delivered under the partnership. About 500 armchairs were made ready for distribution tomorrow as part of an initial consignment from illegally-cut logs seized in a series of operations in Mindanao.

The first batch of armchairs will be distributed to the Caraga region, which has an armchair shortage of 40,000.

Several provinces in southern Philippines are also experiencing the lack of armchairs, particularly Bukidnon (25,844) and Misamis Oriental (12,872) in Region 10 and Compostela Valley (8,057) and Davao del Norte (7,936) in Region 11.

Some statistics
Inventory of the DepEd for this school year cites 25.7 million students (22.06 million in public and another 3.65 million in private schools); 55, 230 public schools; 456, 067 classrooms; 510, 639 teachers and 16 million school seats all in the public education sector.

It has allocated P12. 45 billion for classroom construction and P1.15 billion for school furniture following the 19-percent increase in its overall budget from last year’s P175 billion to P207 billion this year though P165 billion of it would go to personnel salaries.

K to 12 reform
The most controversial and topping all changes in the basic education sector is the K to 12 education reform. This adds a couple of years to the 10-year basic education curriculum.
The Philippines will no longer be the only country in Asia that does not follow the basic-education length of schooling standard in the US and Europe.

Employers in the West can no longer suddenly refuse to promote great-achiever OFWs to higher positions because they had a “deficient” 10-year primary, elementary and high school education.

The DepEd begins enforcing the universal kindergarten program as its first step towards the full implementation of the program this school year.

Sec. Luistro said DepEd is reaching out to more than half a million school-aged children who weren’t able to enroll in May last year.

The department held an early registration day last January 29 in public schools nationwide in a move to achieve universal participation in basic education by ensuring all school-aged children are enrolled for the coming school year.

DepEd has likewise developed a ground map of school-aged children in all three levels: kindergarten, elementary and secondary. This is to ensure that the country meets the Millennium Development Goal targets and the Education For All commitment as the 2015 deadline for these nears.

While review of the new K -12 curriculum is still going on, the program has reportedly received widespread support following the completion of nationwide consultations from February to March this year.

About 77 percent of the 1, 417 participants in the consultation forums, mostly students, have pledged their support of the program.

Consultations are also being held with employers all over the country to ensure that graduates of the K-12 system will be allowed to work upon receiving their diplomas.

TESDA bares plan to offer students technical vocational training online

By INA HERNANDO-MALIPOT

June 6, 2011, 5:32pm

MANILA, Philippines — To provide more access to students who want to take up technical and vocational training, the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) is set to make tech-voc training available online.

According to TESDA Director General Joel Villanueva, technical vocational training in the country will only be a stroke of the keyboard away very soon after unveiling a plan to make tech-voc education available through the Internet for students nationwide.

“The online tech-voc training is now in the works and would be available at first to select courses,” he said.

Distance learning through the Internet, said Villanueva, will make technical vocational education more accessible, “especially for overseas Filipino workers who are already abroad but who want to hone their skills or learn other skills.”

Once the infrastructure has been set in place, “TESDA’s students will have a choice whether to study on-site or online.”

Currently, TESDA offers two scholarship programs: the Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP) and the Private Education Student Fund Assistance (PESFA) program.
With the new school year, Villanueva said technical vocational training offered by the agency nationwide can be a viable alternative to the people.

He said the growing relevance of technical vocational education to students for being affordable, accessible and one that gives graduates high value of employability has put it into the spotlight.

“We are all aware of the high cost of education. However, this should no longer be a hindrance to our students to pursue a career,” said Villanueva.

“Technical vocational education is here to develop and hone the skills of students who soon will be part of the country’s workforce,” he added.

Villanueva also said that students can avail themselves of TESDA’s community- based and enterprise-based system, which includes the Dual Training System, a mode of delivery that combines learning in school and in a company.

This would provide practical workplace experience that is often required by companies. He said TESDA wants to go beyond the confines of the classroom and want people to have more choices.

“TESDA, with adequate resources, will continue to work in making technical vocational training curriculum relevant to the world of work, increase access to it, continue special training to instructors, and improve and upgrade physical facilities for students,” he said.

'PH education system not ready for K+12'

David Dizon, abs-cbnNEWS.com

Posted at 06/06/2011 1:40 PM | Updated as of 06/06/2011 1:40 PM

 

MANILA, Philippines - A teachers' group on Monday said the Philippine education system is still not ready for the implementation of the K+12 program, which seeks to add 2 more years to the basic 10-year education cycle of students.


Speaking to ANC, Teachers' Dignity Coalition chairman Benjo Basas urged President Aquino to prioritize the education sector amid continuing shortages in classrooms, teachers and even poor sanitary facilities in public schools. He noted that the biggest challenge is how to accommodate the rising number of students in the country.

"The biggest challenge is the 2.5% increase in public school enrollees. Talagang hindi kayang i-accommodate. We have a big population, a growing population and we can't meet the need. The Department of Education is determined to implement K+12 starting with universal kindergarten but on the issue of preparedness, it's not DepEd but the whole system that is not ready," he told ANC's "Headstart."

Basas said the government should hire at least 30,000 teachers to handle an estimated 1.93 million kindergarten pupils this year. He noted that contractual kindergarten teachers are only paid P3,000 a month per shift by the Department of Education (DepEd).

"There should be a priority in the budget. If we need 30,000 teachers, we should open 30,000 teaching items," he said.

For his part, ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio said Malacañang allotted P21 billion for its Conditional Cash Transfer program while basic services such as education and health remain grossly underfunded.

He challenged President Aquino and Education Secretary Luistro to pay a visit to schools like Payatas B Elementary School in Quezon City, where some Grade 6 classes are held in makeshift classrooms in what should be the school quadrangle, and regular classrooms are partitioned in half to accommodate two classes with 60 to 70 students per class.

“They should also visit Batasan Hills National High School, with class sizes averaging at around 90 students, and where some students have to sit on the floor because of the lack of chairs. I challenge them to look these children in the eye and tell them that this is the best that their administration can give them,” he said in a statement.

Luistro said the DepEd cannot hire more teachers without an enabling law. He said the department usually hires contractual teachers to fill in the shortage for educators.

He also noted that the DepEd received a P1 billion commitment from governors and mayors to build classrooms for their constituents.

"Even with the shortage, I'm very hopeful kaya solusyunan in the next year or two," he said.

 

Good quality education for only P50

By Santiago R. Alcantara
Philippine Daily Inquirer  
2:40 am | Sunday, June 5th, 2011 

Compared with the impressive facades of the Br. Andrew Gonzalez Hall and the Enrique Razon Sports Center, another school building of De La Salle University (DLSU) on Taft Avenue, Manila, is hardly noticeable when one views the campus from a Light Rail Transit train.

The size of the one-story structure, however, belies the big role it plays in the lives of children of preschool age from poor families along Leveriza Street and neighboring areas.

“We’re making a difference in the life of the kids and their families by providing them quality education,” Maria Fe Ferrer, the coordinator of the preschool, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The school charges its students P50 each for the whole school year. The amount covers instructional materials, the school uniform and field trip expenses.

“It is a contribution of sorts to make the parents feel that it is not a dole-out. It’s our way of letting them know that they have responsibilities [when it comes to] their children,” Ferrer said.

The parents also serve as the school’s partners in maintaining the building’s cleanliness and organizing and looking for venues for activities like Christmas programs and Family Day.

“We talk to the parents all the time. We go to their place or they come here. And they are happy to discover that their children are well taken care of. It feels great because we see that they also learn along with their children,” said the early childhood education major who has been teaching at La Salle for nine years.

She added that in a community where everybody knows everyone, it was easy to find out that most of the students’ parents did not finish high school and even fewer reached first year college.

None of the children, however, belong to broken homes or live in the streets. Their fathers work as pedicab drivers, construction workers, security guards or vendors although in some cases, the women are the breadwinners.

“We look at the salaries and the size of the family before we consider them for the program. We tell them: ‘You’re not qualified because your husband’s salary is more than enough.’ And they answer back: ‘But, teacher, we have seven children.’ If you ask for their backgrounds, your findings give you a better understanding [of them],” she said.

St. La Salle Preschool is the brainchild of the late president of De La Salle, Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC, who saw it as the school’s way of giving back to the community.

The nonprofit school was established under the university’s College of Education in 1999 right in the heart of the depressed community of Leveriza. In 2008, it moved to its present location on Fidel Reyes Street.

Ferrer, who helps in the planning and coordinates with De La Salle administration, said they strictly observe the 15 pupils-per-class policy. There are four sections—two each for kindergarten and preparatory.

“We’re not going to cram them inside a room so they will be able to study well,” she said, adding that the two teachers who conduct the morning and afternoon classes are assisted by volunteers who are taking up education at DLSU.

“We tell them to be diligent with their studies so they can study in ‘big La Salle.’ They call their school ‘small La Salle,’” Ferrer said with a laugh.

According to her, they use Filipino as the medium of instruction since it is the language their students speak in their homes.

“If you read to them in English, they would call our attention: ‘Teacher, more in Tagalog, please.’ They read very well in Filipino,” Ferrer added.

The children’s sense of identity as Filipinos is not only reflected in their choice of Filipino as a language of preference, Ferrer said, but what they are as individuals is what they actually give.

“We asked them one time to name some Filipinos they know. And they singled out the members of their families. The common Filipino according to them is moreno (deep brown) with black hair,” Ferrer said.

Ferrer noted that the children especially the preps were also aware of the elections last year and they know that Benigno S. Aquino III is the new president.

“We integrate reading with writing and part of the writing exercises is a collective letter they wrote for the President which the teacher helped in composing,” she said showing the manila paper that contains the letter in Filipino.

“Dear President Noynoy Aquino, take care of the people. Don’t abandon the people. Safeguard the people. If there’s fire, please let the people ride in your jeepney (car) … Please repair the roads so the people won’t stumble. Come to our school so we can shake hands with you,” part of the letter says.

The parents’ involvement, Ferrer said, is very important in the mental and physical development of the child. These children are the mirror of their environment at home.

“We have a child who was very rowdy at the beginning of the school year. We found out that the parents are having problems. He would tell us: ‘Teacher, my mother left our house because she had quarrel with my father,”’ Ferrer said.

Ferrer said that if the parents are not supportive, the children won’t be encouraged to go to school. If a child has already incurred 40 absences, he is considered dropped out.

“One child once said: ‘I don’t like to be here in school anymore. I am always pressured to think. I’m getting tired,”’ she recalls, adding that one parent underestimated the power of child learning by commenting “that’s only preschool!”

But school teachers of the nearby Aurora A. Quezon Elementary School, a public school on San Andres Street, in Malate, are excited to admit them to Grade 1, with one general expression: “Oh, they’re all good!” Ferrer said.

iPads replacing note pads as Asian schools go high-tech

Simin Wang, Agence France-Presse

Posted at 06/04/2011 4:41 PM | Updated as of 06/04/2011 4:41 PM

 

SINGAPORE - Apple's iPad and other tablet computers are replacing traditional note pads in some Asian schools and making the lives of thousands of students a whole lot easier.

Soon pupils could be reading on their tablets about a quaint old communication device called "paper", especially in Asia's advanced economies where many schools are racing toward a paperless classroom.

The slim glass slabs slip easily into a bag and can store thousands of textbooks, making a fat school bag full of heavy books, pens and notepads a thing of the past.

"I like the iPad because it is portable and we do not have to carry so many bags and files around," said 13-year-old Nicole Ong, who now makes notes on her iPad during class at Nanyang Girls' High School in Singapore.

A sample group of more than 120 students and 16 teachers at the school have been given iPads, at a cost of over $100,000. By 2013, every student in the school will have one.

The number of software applications -- or apps -- that can be used for educational purposes on tablet computers is set to explode.

It's a brand new business that even media mogul Rupert Murdoch has identified as an area of huge potential growth.

Murdoch said his News Corp group is to push into the education technology market in a speech to the e-G8 conference of Internet entrepreneurs and European policymakers in Paris last month.

He described education as the "last holdout from the digital revolution" and outlined a vision for personalized learning with lessons delivered by the world’s best teachers to thousands of students via the Internet.

"Today’s classroom looks almost exactly the same as it did in the Victorian age," Murdoch added.

But many Asian schools are already way ahead of the game.

"No longer is language learning solely based on the teacher commenting on students' works -- classmates can feedback on one another," said Seah Hui Yong, curriculum dean of Nanyang.

Rene Yeo, head of the information technology department at Tampines Secondary School, also in Singapore, teaches science with his iPad. His students learn factorization by simply moving the numbers around on the screen.

They also read about animal cells and the human brain structure by clicking on the various parts. And tablet computers make the double helix structure of a human DNA practically come to life before a student's eyes.

There are apps to learn English and maths, pupils can do cause and effect analysis on iBrainstorm, prepare for oral exams and speeches with AudioNote and even strum the guitar for a music lesson on GarageBand.

The rise of classroom technology will mirror its rise throughout society, says Sam Han, a US-based expert on the role of technology in education.

Han, instructional technology fellow at the Macaulay Honors College, City University of New York, said he expects some Asian countries to leapfrog the West.

"While the Internet was birthed in the US, Singapore and South Korea (for example) boast far greater broadband Internet access penetration and infrastructure than the US," he said.

Japan's communications ministry has given tablets to more than 3,000 under-12 pupils at 10 elementary schools and even fitted classrooms with interactive electronic blackboards under the so-called "future school" pilot project.

In South Korea, where schools have WiFi zones, the education ministry has been testing 'digital textbooks' in some schools since 2007. In 2012, the ministry says it will decide whether to supply tablets to schools nationwide.

Singapore has a hugely competitive education system known for its high level of science and mathematics instruction. The education ministry provides a grant for schools to buy this kind of equipment, as well as software and services.

Many schools already have WiFi, making it easy for students to connect to the Internet.

But some teachers acknowledged there are students who get distracted by playing games or surfing Facebook and other social media sites like Twitter.

Education psychologist Qiu Lin cautioned against schools getting carried away and promoting the blind use of technological devices, and neglecting the real goals of education.

"The trend of integrating technology into education will definitely increase," said the assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University, which is separate from the high school.

"But after one month when the novelty of iPads wears down, a good curriculum and teaching materials that can increase deep thinking and problem solving in students need to be in place."