‘Computers can’t replace good teachers’

Computers have not up to this time proven their worth as key teaching and learning tools in the classroom and there is still no substitute for good teachers who really have mastery of the subject.

"One must invest in very well trained teachers first," said Fr. Bienvenido Nebres SJ, president of Ateneo de Manila University. "Then one might have a chance of using computers in the learning process. Otherwise, computers will be simply oversold and underused."

At the 86th general assembly of FUSE (Foundation for Upgrading the Standard of Education), Nebres cited the book of Larry Cuban Oversold and Underused: Reforming Schools Through Technology which basically concluded that the introduction of computer-based technologies has not made a difference in the teaching and learning process.

Educators with limited budgets, he told the FUSE assembly – one of the beneficiaries of the Tan Yan Kee Foundation of businessman Lucio Tan – should spend their money first on teachers and teacher-training and on proven technologies: textbooks, teacher guides, blackboards and chalk, duplicating machines and video camera recorders.

Nebres said Ateneo de Manila and the Department of Education (DepEd) have launched a major initiative to improve mathematics teaching and learning at the high school and grade school levels.

"In our discussions, we emphasized that it was important not to introduce too many innovations to teachers, to stay with what they are familiar with and improve on them patiently, and to develop teacher-training modules that help them with their actual textbook and day-to-day teaching," Nebres said.

He said new textbooks on algebra and geometry will be printed and ready for the next schoolyear.