Philippine Business Magazine: Volume 8 No.1 - Corporate Citizenship
Hoping For Hi Tech
Cemex's donation of computers to a public school jumpstarts an ambitious project
By Ana Maureen P. Macaraig

Manna from heaven. This is how Luz Osmena describes her school's ten newly-acquired computers - a donation from the Solid Cement Corporation. Osmena is teacher-in-charge of the Mayamot Extension of the Antipolo National High School. Through the PCs for Public High Schools Project of the government and the private sector, this newly-established school extension is now able to show a glimpse of technology to students whose closest encounter with a computer is a makeshift keyboard made of cardboard.

The Antipolo National High School - Mayamot Extension is a product of a short-term preparation following a local government resolution seeking for its establishment in the area. Osmeña used to teach science at the Antipolo National High School main campus located some 20 minutes away from Barangay Mayamot. She relates that while there are many private schools in the said barangay, the problem of most of the dwellers is that they don't have the money to send their children to these schools. Shortly after the resolution was made in 1999, the extension school was prepared for opening during the summer break, and Osmeña was appointed teacher-in-charge of the school.

With almost 1,500 students enrolled for the year, only 10 classrooms to host all of them, and non-existent computer nor science laboratories with the needed facilities, Osmeña found it necessary to mobilize the parents, teachers, and the community as a whole. As a group, they had to think of ways to produce the funds to finance the completion of these much-needed facilities. Without these, her vision for the school to be one of the top-performing public high schools in the province of Rizal will not be fully realized.

Business Pitches In
On top of the efforts Osmena and company exerted, Mayamot Extension school also got a little bit lucky. The school happened to be in the area where CEMEX Philippines operated one of its cement plants. As a commitment to the community where they are situated, Cemex - through its subsidiary, the Solid Cement Corporation - donated ten brand new desktop computers to the Mayamot Extension school in time for Christmas last year (2000). Cemex responded to a Makati Business Club call to members to donate old computers to the PCs for Public Schools project. Just a week after this very first donation, another Cemex subsidiary, the Apo Cement Corporation, donated ten more desktop computers, this time to Naga National High School in Cebu, where the Apo Cement plant is located.

Only two months after the donation, Osmeña still could not get over the benefits the new computer laboratory brought to Mayamot Extension school. Ten computers, she says, are still not enough to equip the school's close to 1,500 students with some basic knowledge about the cyberworld - information that students in most private schools are privileged to have. But with the school's limited resources at the moment, ten is better than none. They will have to start somewhere; and starting does not only mean holding classes and hands-on training for students, but for teachers as well.

The Continuing Need
The Mayamot Extension school is just one of the many public high schools in need of the basic computer infrastructure for its students. Many are in worse shape, and this will have to be addressed before it is too late for their students to catch up with the fast-changing information revolution.

In a knowledge-intensive world like today, computer literacy is almost a non-negotiable requirement in entering the work force. There is no stopping technology, and the best way to cope with it is to get equipped and continue learning while students are still within the education institutions. To be able to get equipped, a substantial amount of resources is needed - and soon. The PCs for Public High Schools hopes to do just that: help the government in providing for the insufficiencies in the education system.

Year-in and year-out, trend analyses have always shown the lack of education support materials for public high schools. It has almost become a given; an expected condition. It's about time we stop shaking our heads while reading about it and start acting on it so that education trends can go the other way.

Click here to find out how to support the PCs for Public Schools Project