MANILA, Philippines -The Department of Education has commended Globe Telecom for its Global Filipino Teachers (GFT) program which equips public school teachers nationwide with necessary skills to efficiently integrate information and communications technology (ICT) in their teaching strategies.
Speaking in behalf of DepEd Assistant Secretary Rey Laguda during the graduation ceremonies for GFT Luzon Cluster at the Mind Museum, DepEd Director III Demi Manuel hailed the GFT program for empowering teachers and allowing them to make significant contributions to learning and achievement.
“Globe Bridging Communities, the corporate social responsibility arm of Globe, plays an important role in recognizing the contributions made right across the education sector towards nation-building and enabling governmental policies in extending the benefits of ICT in the classroom, in curriculum design and development and in every teacher and student in our country,” Manuel said.
Manuel added that experience has shown that a variety of support and enabling mechanisms must be implemented to optimize the use of ICT by the teachers. While traditional teacher leadership skills and practices are still important, she said that they must also have access to relevant, timely, and on-going professional development.
“We are very happy that the private sector has been very active in helping the education sector in achieving its national as well as global development goals. We also hope that when the GFT graduates go back to their respective schools, they will have new knowledge, new skills, new perspectives and enhanced methods and strategies in ICT integration,” Manuel said.
Sixty-nine mentors from Ilocos Norte, Pangasinan, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, Batangas, Oriental Mindoro, Cavite, and National Capital Region received their diploma from Globe and its implementing partner, Coalition for Better Education (CBE), for having completed a five-day live-in training workshop on how to integrate ICT in their respective subject areas such as Math, Science, English, and Heyograpiya, Kasaysayan at Sibika (HeKaSi). The training is equivalent to three units in a masteral program. GFT, which started in 2009, has trained at least 386 teachers from 374 public schools in various parts of the country.
Yoly Crisanto, Globe head for corporate communications, said that since ICT provides increased teacher motivation and improved student memory retention and comprehension of various subjects, GFT was able to transform computers and the internet from being mere sources of information into instruments of interactive teaching and online collaboration.
“Globe is committed to be a relevant and innovative leader in maximizing ICT for education in public schools. So we continue to work hand-in-hand with DepEd and our partners as we aspire to help our schools meet 21st century standards in terms of teaching and in giving students access to quality education,” she said.
Jeffrey Tarayao, president of the Coalition for Better Education, on the other hand, expressed appreciation to Globe for investing in the public school teachers and ensuring that ICT becomes really valuable and meaningful to them.