Press Release
April 13, 2008

ANGARA SEEKS TO REVOLUTIONIZE RP EDUCATION THROUGH CLEET

Amidst our limited resources, Senator Edgardo J. Angara today seeks to provide innovation in Philippine education through the establishment of a Center for Leading Edge Educational Technologies (CLEET).

"Among the main problems confronting the educational system in the country today, aside from lack of adequate funds and low teacher salaries, are staffing problems in remote school sites, educational inequities in terms of access and quality of education and inadequate in-service training of teachers," Angara observed.

He added, "These problems are found in other parts of the world and they have found that adopting emerging educational technologies in the education market place are effective in addressing these problems."

One innovative delivery approach which is utilized by developing countries nowadays is the application of telecommunications technology to distance learning, which is live video teleconferencing in the business environment.

Through the effective adoption of such technology, it is hoped that the Philippine education will now be accessible to as many students as possible, especially in rural areas.

The CLEET seeks to bring about academic, technoIogica1 and economic forces which can advance the educational promise of affordable technologies. It will be dedicated to the development of the appropriate educational materials for use in these emerging technologies.

It will also be created to focus the collective resources of government and the private sector into a national force for innovation in education. For the private sector, support can be made through membership for a specific period of time or by providing contributions that can come in the form of fund, personnel and equipment.

The CLEET will also train educators, trainors and practitioners from across the nation to influence the directions of educational technology. First priorities will be areas of manpower developments and the educational curricula that are of broad importance and that are amenable to the educational promise of technology.

"The premise is that educational priorities should lead, rather than react to the development of affordable educational technologies. The goal is to assemble a high- technology facility for accessing leading-edge hardware, software and materials and a core of leadership to determine these priorities and to bring technology to bear on them as appropriate," Angara said.

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