CEBU CITY, Philippines -- Education Secretary Jesli Lapus unveiled a 5-year Information and Communications Technology for Education (ICT4E) strategic plan that will also involve spending P2 billion in 2009 alone.

Speaking during the 3rd National ICTs Basic Education Congress, Lapus said the education department's vision seeks to have an ICT-enabled education system that will transform students into "dynamic learners, values-centered and responsible citizens."

The education department also plans to intensify the use of ICT to revitalize schools, link students to global resources and enable them to critically seek and analyze information, create new knowledge and products and eventually develop habits of self-learning.

"Education cannot be globally competitive and cannot be enhanced without the integration of ICT, this is a universal norm now and even prescribed by the UNESCO," Lapus later said in an interview with INQUIRER.net.

The strategic plan will include activities, such as complete integration of ICT into the curriculum; intensifying competency-based professional development program; establishment of necessary ICT infrastructure and development of processes and systems for governance and management.

Lapus said the proposed P2 Billion budget for next year will cover 44,300 primary and secondary schools nationwide.

He also mentioned that existing partnerships on education and ICT with private sectors, such as Microsoft and Intel, will continue.

"The most difficult would be of course, funding source because it is still government that must provide the lion's share. Everything we do in this transformation must be supported without any doubt by the government," said Lapus.

In his speech, Lapus stressed that the ICT4E plan will not be "technology-led." He said that DepEd is paying more attention to using ICT and defining how they can improve the capacity of educators.

A curriculum reform is also set to take place to achieve ICT4E's vision. The initial stage will be the integration of ICT in the existing curriculum, which have already started. ICT is being taught at secondary schools as a separate subject on computer education.

The second stage or the full implementation of ICT in the enriched curriculum is expected to commence at the completion of stage one. Stage two involves a review of the curriculum content in light of changes brought about by ICT in society, economy and politics.

ICT4E is expected to transform current education practices in the country, Lapus said.

"Some people call this transformation because the tradition is that the teacher is the repository of knowledge in the classroom -- that is not true anymore. The new role of the teacher today is to facilitate learning, and learning should happen anytime, anywhere," Lapus said.