Laguna aims to revolutionize public education with E-Rizal

MANILA, Philippines - On the 150th birth anniversary of national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, his birthplace is scrambling to launch a major innovation in education that is expected to bring public school education to the digital age.

The provincial government of Laguna has built a tablet PC from scratch that it envisions to distribute to public high school students in the province in lieu of books. Called the eRizal tablet, the device was given to President Aquino by Laguna Governor Jeorge E.R. Ejercito Estregan last June 19 during the grand Rizal celebration in Calamba City.

“The idea is to be giving away the devices in much the same way books are given to students at the beginning of every school term. But this time, we are giving them a tablet preloaded with books and other learning materials,” says Neil Andrew Nocon, board member of the Laguna provincial government, in an interview during the writeshop-workshop for teachers last summer.

Call it the local version of the iPad, the Samsung Galaxy or the BlackBerry playbook and other popular tablet devices in the market today, but the local tablet is meant to be Laguna’s pride.

Nocon says that while it would be much easier to just purchase a tablet that is already available in the market today and all the local government needs to worry about are the educational materials that will be loaded onto the devices and the funding for the project, the local government thought of making its own device to support local industries and the local economy.

The eRizal tablet was built by the Laguna-based Ionics-EMS Inc., a local manufacturer of digital devices and the first Filipino electronics firm listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange with a 36-year track record. Its website says it is a member of the “EMS-Alliance,” a worldwide coalition of five independent mid-tiered EMS providers in five continents. 

If this eRizal project pushes through, says Nocon, then the province can really call the tablet Laguna’s pride. While the project proponents couldn’t give a specific timeline for the implementation of the project at the time of the interview, Nocon says the local government deems it fitting to launch the project on the occasion of the national hero’s birth anniversary.

Laguna Governor Jeorge E.R. Ejercito Estregan hands over to President Aquino the eRizal Tablet during its formal launch in Calamba City as Pagsanjan Mayor Maita “Girlie” Ejercito,  National Historical Commission of the Philippines chairperson Maria Serena Diokno, Laguna board member Niel Andrew Nocon, and Department of Education assistant secretary Tonisito Umali look on. laguna.gov.ph

“Rizal was an educator and this is our tribute to the man who has given our country, our province and the Malay race so much pride,” Nocon says. “We want students to remember his name and continue to associate his legacy with education innovation.”

Admittedly, the project is a big gamble for the local government, but Nocon says the governor would like to take the initiative to increase public sector spending to bridge the so-called digital divide.

Laguna has 84 public high schools and if the entire student population would get a tablet each, the funding requirement would be huge. However, the plan is for a staggered roll out, with several pilot schools receiving the gadget in the first year of implementation The local government is banking on the support of the Department of Education and the donor community to scale up the project on a province-wide basis. Obviously, paying for the individual gadgets that will be given to the students is one thing, producing the educational materials – mainly textbooks and workbooks in digital format – training the teachers and school administrators to use the device and creating the ecosystem and the IT infrastructure needed to make the new set up work is another thing.

Like most provinces in the Philippines today, Laguna has schools located in remote areas that are not connected to the Internet, and even in some schools located in urban centers, the broadband connection is not fast enough to support the entire school accessing the Internet all at the same time. Clearly, policies have to be developed before the project implementation and with the various stakeholders sitting together to make comprehensive plans. 

Prototypes of the eRizal tablet.

As the first public school district that would be implementing this in the country, the local government understands the need to consult with many experts in developing the processes and guidelines for the implementation. The writeshop-workshop for teachers held in Calamba City last May was the first effort to gather the educators in one venue to discuss how the digital classroom would work. Many such consultations would follow, says Nocon.

The good thing though is that the Department of Education (DepEd) is throwing its full support to the project. “We are optimistic about this idea as this will be an innovation in our educational system and we support it,” says Hereberto Jose Miranda, assistant schools division superintendent of DepEd-Laguna, who was present in the writeshop-workshop, adding that DepEd will be in the best position to help in curriculum and content development.

Val Carandang of Ionics-EMS explains to the teachers during the eRizal tablet demo at the workshop that like most tablets available in the market today, it will be available in 7-inch and 10-inch models, with the bigger model going to the teacher. While the student tablets will be preloaded with textbooks and workbooks, the teachers will be able to upload new content – lectures, study guides, videos, Powerpoint presentations or take home exams – as needed. In each classroom, there will be a mini server and Ionics-CMS will provide technical support.

As easy as it sounds now, the idea needs further fine-tuning and it requires a lot of hard work in the months to come prior to the implementation and the biggest challenge to hurdle is still the massive funding needed to implement the project. 

Laguna public high school teachers listen to the demonstration by Ionics-Ems on how the tablet works.

However, Nocon has this to say: “The Philippines spends only around P6,270 per year per child in education. This is very low compared to other cou

The teachers who attended the workshop were all enthusiastic about the concept. However, many questions linger: What if the student or the teacher loses the gadget, will there be an immediate replacement? What if there is power interruption or Internet service disruption, will the class proceed as usual? Students growing up in the digital age would definitely welcome the innovation but how will it affect learning? Also, how does one bridge the gap in digital skills between teachers and students?

Despite the challenges, maybe it is really time for the country to collectively think big and dream big. Rizal, the nationalist and visionary, would have applauded the effort.