A new poll on distance learning woes has exposed the digital divide that hounds parents and learners nationwide amid the COVID-19 pandemic., Senator Win Gatchalian said on Sunday.
Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture, said the sector’s recovery should accelerate efforts in expanding access to both internet connectivity and gadgets for learning.
Out of 1,200 adults polled nationwide in a Pulse Asia survey conducted from February 22 to March 3, some 63% had a child in basic education.
When asked about the educational problems they encountered during the pandemic, issues related to internet connectivity and access to gadgets were among the most common, with 43% of the respondents saying intermittent internet connection was usually their problem at home, 36% identified the lack of gadgets like cellphones, tablets or laptops, and 30% said they struggled with expensive internet fees.
While the 2019 National ICT Household Survey revealed that the National Capital Region (NCR) had the highest number of households with internet access (33.2%), the Pulse Asia survey revealed that it was the region that suffered most from intermittent internet connection (55%) and expensive internet fees (47%) compared to the rest of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
While NCR suffered less (28%) from the lack of gadgets, the problem was more common in the rest of Luzon (41%), Visayas (33 percent), and Mindanao (34 percent).
Based on the 2019 National ICT Household Survey, 82.3% of households nationwide did not have access to the internet. The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (95.5%) and Region IX (93.8%) had the highest number of households without internet access.
Gatchalian last year proposed the installation of cell sites in all public schools to expand internet access nationwide. As part of the roll-out of the Public Education Network (PEN), the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) recently signed a memorandum of agreement to allow the use of public schools as common tower sites. Gatchalian has vowed to file a bill that will provide the country’s learners with a laptop and internet allowances.
Based on the DepEd’s Learner Information System data as of November 27last year, more than 18.7 million out of almost 24 million learners were using printed modules for distance learning. More than 1.6 million learners were attending online classes.
