The Potential of e-Learning to Address the Needs of Out-of-School Youth in the Philippines

Abstract

This paper reports on the findings of focus group discussions designed to explore the learning and skills-based needs of out-of-school youth in the Philippines, particularly addressing their reasons for leaving school, their current activities and employment, how they acquire skills and knowledge, what they want to learn about, their use of Information and Communication Technologies, and their future employment plans. It was undertaken in the context of the development of a programme of e-learning through ICT Centres to be delivered in support of the country's 5 million out-of-school youth.

Acknowledgements

We are immensely grateful to all those who supported the design and implementation of this research, most notably Emmanuel Lallana, Lorraine Van Blerk, Ariel Rodriguez, local government officials in Cagayan de Oro and San Jose del Monte, Intel Philippines, Father Ben Beltran, Dan Dizon, and above all the many young people who contributed so willingly to our research endeavours. Thanks too to Hugh Matthews as editor and the two referees who raised numerous points for clarification and wider discussion. We wish we could have done full justice to them all, but that will need to await a future publication!

Notes

1. http://www.ictwatch.com/saj/eng.htm accessed 16th March 2006.

2. http://www.dfid.gov.uk/research/imfundo-ethiopia.asp accessed 16th March 2006.

3. http://www.chasquinet.org/ninosdelacalle/e-result_ta1.html accessed 16th March 2006.

4. http://www.unescobkk.org/index.php?id = 1667 accessed 16th March 2006.

5. http://www.m-learning.org accessed 31st July 2006.

6. http://www.dfid.gov.uk/research/imfundo-ethiopia.asp accessed 26th April 2006.

7. The total population of the Philippines was projected as 85.2 million in 2005, of which 38.6 million were under 20 (http://www.census.gov.ph/ accessed 28th April 2006).

8. http://cfapp2.undp.org/hdr/statistics/data/rc_report.cfm accessed September 2005.

9. http://www.deped.gov.ph/about_deped/history.asp accessed 31st July 2006.

10. http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/philippines_statistics.html accessed 31st July 2006

11. Derived from http://www.deped.gov.ph/cpanel/uploads/issuanceImg/factsheet2006(Mar28).pdf accessed 31st July 2006.

12. see http://www.sandiwaan.org accessed 26th April 2006.

13. http://imfundo.digitalbrain.com/imfundo/web/activities/ethimenu/ most recently accessed 26th April 2006. Thanks also to Lorraine Van Blerk who participated in this research for sharing thoughts and comments on the methodology of our new work in the Philippines

14. We should stress that these comments are also based on the experience of two of the authors in our own lives as young Filipino women. One of us has also been a teacher, and has worked extensively with young people in the Philippines.

15. See for example http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/FJ05Ae01.html accessed 28th April 2006.

16. Manny Pacquiao (known as Pac Man and The Destroyer) is the champion Filipino Super Featherweight boxer, currently (April 2006) ranked number one in the world having won 41 of his 46 fights, most recently the rematch against Erik Morales in January 2006; Efren Reyes is another Filipino sporting superstar, known as ‘The Magician’, who became world pool (9 ball) champion in 1999, and was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 2003. Interestingly, no examples of prominent women were mentioned.

17. See http://www.asiancallcentres.com", http://www.philippine-embassy.de/callcenter.htm for example accessed 8th August 2006.