Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: lessons from the Philippines
Beginning in 1996, the Department of Education (DepEd) started to implement the first large scale ICT/education initiative in the Philippines. This effort was later strengthened and expanded to become the DepEd Computerization Program and DepEd Internet Connectivity Program (DCP/DICP) This was a huge undertaking for DepEd, both to oversee and to implement. Fortunately, many groups were willing to help other government agencies, international and non government organizations, private sector, local government units and higher education institutions. That said, coordinating the large scale implementation of ICT/education initiatives, as well as related donations and support from partners and key stakeholder groups, made it difficult to share information and expertise, coordinate public private partnerships, and replicate and scale up successful projects. Many countries have created a distinct agency to coordinate and implement ICT/education. In the early stages of the introduction of ICTs in education in the Philippines, the government largely resisted this idea, although a number of related oversight and implementation models were proposed. Absent such an organization and/or related formal institutional structure education policymakers, stakeholders and practitioner groups explored other options.