eSkwela Naga City

SPEECH for the AWARD CEREMONY of the 2010 UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICT in Education 12 January 2011, UNESCO Delivered by DepEd-BALS Director Carolina S. Guerrero

The Philippine Government thanks the Kingdom of Bahrain, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa, the Jury, and UNESCO for recognizing our initiative, eSkwela, with the UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Award.

eSkwela – which is a joint project of our country’s Bureau of Alternative Learning System of the Department of Education and the Commission on Information and Communications – is an illustration of the Philippines’ commitment to lifelong learning and the use of ICT in education and serves as a concrete affirmation that collaborative efforts between public agencies, the private sector, and the community do work.

Indeed, the existing Accreditation and Equivalency Program of the Bureau of Alternative Learning System has been much enhanced and made more effective by the use of ICT.

From a pilot run of 4 in 2006-2007, we now have 53 sites, with around 30 more to start operations within the next three months. Not only do the learners acquire digital literacy but they also use the e-module packages and the Internet to learn life skills in a more exciting, fun, and engaging way. A number of the eSkwela graduates have gone to college and others have found gainful employment with the skills that they learned.

eSkwela has touched the lives not only of its learners, but also of the mobile teachers and the learning communities in the Philippines.

With eSkwela, there is fun…
there is discovery…
there is engagement…
there are partnerships and opportunities…
but more importantly, there is hope for improvement of basic and adult education!

Once again, thank you for this Award.