A Visayan lawmaker is calling for the immediate passage of a bill that institutionalizes a cyber-education program for elementary, high school, and college education in the Philippines after reports on  the poor standing of Philippine universities in the latest Quacquarelli Symonds  World University Rankings came out.

Rep. Alfredo Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) in a press release said  House Bill 4993 seeks the creation of the Cyber- Education Development and Management Corporation that shall formulate a program for cyber-education planning, research, and development.

Under the proposed “Cyber Education Act,” CyberEd Corp will act as principal policy-making, planning, and coordinating entity in the implementation of cyber-education program.

The Department of Science and Technology, Commission on Higher Education, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority are among the government agencies that will assist the CyberEd Corp. in the program implementation.

Benitez said under his measure, a nationwide Internet network will be set up to connect the 17 regional network nodes in the country, which, he added, “will provide a 100 percent Internet and intra-net connectivity to all public elementary, secondary schools, and state universities and colleges (SUCs) using up-to-date information and communication technology (ICT).”

HB 4993 provides that all public elementary, secondary schools and state universities and colleges (SUCs) nationwide will be provided with necessary physical and ICT infrastructure for ICT-based teaching and learning of their students.

 “The private and the public school teachers and school administrators shall have access to quality and affordable laptops, which is, in support of the current Laptop for Teachers (LT4T), program of the DepEd,” he said.

Once HB 4993 is enacted into law, the CyberEd Corp will distribute 10-million laptops for the next 10 years, Benitez also said.*

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