MANILA, Philippines -- A three-year-old training program developed in the Philippines by Sun Microsystems in tandem with local academicians has attracted about 12 percent of the local universities and tertiary schools in the country, executives said.

About 273 schools out of 1,600 universities and tertiary schools are now members of the Java Education and Development Initiative (JEDI) of Sun Microsystems, said Matt Thompson, director of Sun Developer Network and Open Source Programs Office of Sun Microsystems.

In two years, the company hopes to hit 50 percent of tertiary schools and universities in the country, Thompson added.

JEDI is a collaborative project of Sun Microsystems and the University of the Philippines Java Resource Development Center in partnership with Philippine Society for IT Educators (PSITE). It was launched in February 2005 in a PSITE convention in Cagayan de Oro City.

"The addressable market is still large," said Thompson who stressed that more schools are hoping to implement the JEDI program.

At least eight countries are also set to implement JEDI, added Naveen Asrani, Sun Microsystems India Pvt. Ltd., manager of Developer Relations India, Asia South and Australasia. Sun will replicate the JEDI program in Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brazil, and France, said Thompson.

Thompson stressed that the JEDI program is not only focused on teaching Java. It is a set of courses designed to teach high-level computer science principles using Java as a tool, he said.

To date, the JEDI program has rolled out seven courses, with three additional courses being developed, including one on "Sun SPOT," Thompson said. Sun SPOT is a programmable object technology developed in Sun's experimental labs. Thompson said Sun SPOT will be introduced in the JEDI program by June 2008.

The Sun executives admitted that they were not expecting the JEDI program to attract schools, which were the driver of the program in the country.