Iloilo Vice Governor Christine “Tingting” Garin has expressed concern over the excessive use of electronic devices, especially mobile phones, among learners.
In her privilege speech on Tuesday, Dec. 10, Garin cited some harmful effects of unregulated gadget use.
“Fake information and news are prevalent in social media and become truth to the vulnerable. Some of our students or learners would rather go online and play games instead of studying their lessons,” she said.
“Some learners have become experts in interacting with others through social media but become reserved and awkward when speaking with others in person,” Garin added.
The vice governor was saddened to learn from an official of the Department of Education (DepEd) that “the numeracy and literacy in the province of Iloilo is also highly affected because of the poor study habbit of our students in school.”
“There is currently no scientific study on the link of numeracy and literacy to the use of cell phones but somehow technology has a prevalent effect to the study habbit of our learners,” said Garin.
“Cell phones are beneficial for learning but learners have tendency to abuse and this can become a source of distraction,” she emphasized.
To help address this problem, Garin passed a resolution urging the DepEd-Schools Division of Iloilo to “carry out” an order that seeks to “regulate the use of cell phones during class hours.”
The education department issued Order No. 83, s. 2003 reiterating DECS Order No. 70, s. 1999 and 26, s. 2000 entitled “Prohibiting Students of Elementary and Secondary Schools from using Cellular Phones and Pagers during Class Hours.”
“We cannot totally ban the use of cell phones for our students during class hours because this may abridge their constitutional rights to communication and correspondence, but we can still impose regulations on the use of cell phones if the intention is purely to descipline our learners so that they will focus on their lessons during class hours,” said Garin.
The Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) recently released its 2018 results which showed that the Philippines gained lowest in reading comprehension and placed the second-lowest in mathematics and science.IMT
