By: Joseph Seabra
Along
with the Philippines’ large geographic, and economic divides there is a large
digital divide that is present within the country. According to the website
business mirror it is estimated that only 58 percent of the country has access
to the internet, and due to this divide, there were “striking gaps in three
areas: education, information and communication, and finance” (Marasigan, 2017).
The digital divide that has developed within the country should not be viewed
in a negative light as any divide within a country will be present within as it
develops.
The
shrink in the digital divide within the Philippines is evident with the
countries growth in the use of wireless communications from 47% of Filipinos in
2017 to a current rate of 58% (Marasigan, 2017). The low percentage that is
representative of those who can access Wi-Fi can most likely be attributed the
geographic division that is present within the Philippines. According to the National
Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) the Philippines is
comprised of 7641 different islands (Lim, 2016). Though as the transportation
and infrastructural development within the country continue to grow it can be
assumed that this digital divide will continue to decrease, and the number of
Filipinos with access to Wi-Fi will decrease.
Education
within the Philippines is the largest area that has been affected by the
digital divide that is present in the country. According to an article by ASEAN
Today the government of the Philippines only spends 6670 Pesos which is
equivalent to $138 USD on the education of each Filipino student, and because
of this the dropout rate within the Philippines has remained extremely high (Pennington,
2017). There are cheap alternatives that are being proposed in order to provide
access to better education systems for Filipino students. The most interesting
proposal that was found was in a journal by Miguel C. Ramos of the University
of the Philippines which proposed the installation of “802.11b wireless links
to link remote underserved areas” (Ramos, 2008).
It can
definitely be stated that the Philippines is part of the current digital divide
within Southeast Asia, but if it is able to close the gap between this educational
divide it can be assumed that the Philippines will able to grow the
infrastructural and technological growth of the country in the future.
Marasigan,
L. (2017). Bridging the digital divide. In Business Mirror. Retrieved November
13, 2019, from https://businessmirror.com.ph/2017/04/30/bridging-the-digital-divide/
Lim,
R. (2016). How Many Islands Are There In The Philippines? It’s Not 7,107!. In
explore by Traveloka. Retrieved November 14, 2019, from https://explore.traveloka.com/features/new-islands-philippines
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