Judicious spending
Now that a former president of the republic has been convicted of plunder, public officials may want to exercise more prudence in pushing projects with stiff price tags to be shouldered by Juan de la Cruz. One of the most controversial projects so far is the government’s deal with Chinese firm ZTE Corp. for a national broadband network, which will require taxpayers to repay a debt of $329 million. That is over 10 times higher than the amount that warranted the conviction of Joseph Estrada for plunder. From the signing of a document in connection with the project during the campaign period last April, the public has been kept in the dark about details of the broadband deal.Now certain quarters are expressing similar concerns over another project, again involving information and communication technology. A study conducted by the Philippine Business for Education or PBED – a grouping of the country’s top industrialists and groups involved in improving the quality of education – raises questions about the cost of the Cyber Education project and even the necessity for it.
The CyberEd project, to be undertaken by the Department of Education, involves setting up multimedia classrooms in 37,794 of the more than 42,000 public schools around the country. Each special classroom will be equipped with two PCs, four television sets, a printer and an antenna, at a cost of P479,000 per room. The PBED noted that similar projects undertaken by private groups with the education department have considerably lower costs.
The country certainly needs to catch up with most of its neighbors in developing ICT competence especially among public school students. Even within the country, there is a wide disparity in ICT competence between the rich and poor, and the gap continues to grow. Children from affluent families get to play with computers almost as soon as there is no longer any danger that they will spill milk on the keyboard. Less fortunate children learn to use computers only in high school, and only on a limited basis.
Narrowing the knowledge gap, however, must be done with care, especially when huge amounts of public funds are involved. In a sector where every peso in the budget allotment is precious, the government cannot afford careless spending. Before another scandal erupts, the CyberEd project must be reviewed.
