The United Nations World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) recognized the Philippine entry entitled “Enabling Teachers on Remote Teaching and Learning in the Time of the Pandemic” as one of four champions in the capacity-building category, specifically the Champion Project under AL C4, during a virtual award and appreciation ceremony held on the occasion of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 2021 High-Level Dialogue with Partners on 18 May 2021.
The entry was a collaboration between the Department of Information Communication and Technology (DICT) and University of the Philippines (UP) Open University whose objective was to help in the transition to digital services of many sectors including education at a time when it was impossible to conduct face-to-face classes. The nine-session Webinar, which came at no cost to the government, helped train 84,632 teachers, 66% of whom were women, with various techniques for remote learning. The sessions are still available online thru the DICT Mindanao Cluster 1’s Facebook Page.
The WSIS recognized the Philippine initiative for encouraging use of ICT solutions and harnessing ICT innovations in providing quality education tailored to the needs of students in the context of the Philippine academic system. The project also provided a learning environment that is gender-friendly and promotes ICT education and training opportunities to women and girls which meets Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 4 Quality Education, 5 Gender Equality, and 17 Partnership for Goals.
The WSIS Prize was developed in partnership with United Nations (UN) stakeholders as a mechanism to encourage participants and evaluate the submissions in fulfillment of and alignment with SDGs.
The Philippines, along with 192 other UN member states, pledged to achieving the 17 SDGs and their 169 targets by 2030. The SDGs have a range of social, economic, governance, and environmental targets and the Philippines committed to carry them in the country’s long-term socio-economic planning first recognized in the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 and carried over by the current administration’s AmBisyon Natin 2040 which seeks to end poverty in the country and transform the Philippines into a prosperous middle-income economy.
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