ANGARA TO CHED: ADOPT ICT FRAMEWORK FOR UNIVERSITIES

Senator Edgardo J. Angara, Chair of the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture, urged the Commission on Higher Education to adopt a strategic framework on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as a useful guide for Philippines universities and colleges.

"CHED should help universities and colleges plan, manage and develop their ICT resources, and set a national standard in ICT education," Angara stressed.

The veteran lawmaker, who is also the Chair of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology and the Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering (COMSTE), also underscored the need to provide schools equal access to expert advice, professional learning programs, digital learning resources and services, application software, ICT infrastructure and technical support services. These will enable higher education institutions make well-informed decisions about ICT and how it can be incorporated into their curriculum and teaching methods.

"This initiative is a response to the growing need of industries for manpower scarcity and a solution to the job-skills mismatch among our graduates," he said, stressing the need to upgrade and develop ICT-related courses in order to provide necessary skills for the growing investors but more importantly, to keep pace with the emergence of new technologies.

Angara is the main proponent of three measures for the development of ICT in the country: the Cybercrime Prevention Act, the Data Protection Act and the act creating the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

The Cybercrime Prevention Act lays down a comprehensive legal framework for the detection, investigation, apprehension, investigation and prosecution of such cybercrimes as hacking, internet fraud, data interference, identity theft and child pornography.

The Data Privacy Act mandates both public and private entities to protect the integrity and confidentiality of any personal information collected from their clients, in adherence to international standards of privacy.

The DICT bill calls for the reorganization of some agencies under the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) and other communications-related government entities into a separate department that will formulate, promulgate and implement policies towards ICT development.

All three measures have been passed by Congress and are pending before the bicameral conference committee. They will be transmitted to Malacanang for signing afterward.