Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

Eighteenth Congress
Second Regular Session

HOUSE BILL NO. | °* 7380

Introduced by Representative JAKE VINCENT S. VILLA

AN ACT
TO PROVIDE FOR DIGITAL EDUCATION

EXPLANATORY NOTE
The Section 17, Article 2 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, provides:

The State shall give priority to education, science and technology, arts,
culture, and sports to foster patriotism and nationalism, accelerate social
progress, and promote total human liberation and development.

During these trying times, social distancing and work from home arrangements are
becoming the standard and norm for safety and productivity. With the advent of digital age
and rapid development of technologies, the national government can take advantage of this
situation to ensure quality basic education and learning for the entire country.

The vision of this measure is to digitalized the learning process for basic education. A
scenario in which children and there parents, whether poor or of means, have easy access to
basic education through digital platforms and technologies. Learning through television
stations, websites and mobile apps will become the norm for basic education. ‘This measure
secks to incorporate ready-to-leam television programming and its application to other
technological platform in the country by forging partnerships between the Department of
Education and qualified and eligible television and broadcasting entities and other media
developers in order to develop, produce, and distribute educational and instructional video
ing for preschool and elementary school children and their parents.

JAKI


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

Eighteenth Congress
Second Regular Session

HOUSE BILL No, _7380

Introduced by Representative JAKE VINCENT S. VILLA

AN ACT
TO PROVIDE FOR DIGITAL EDUCATION

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in the congress
assembled:

SECTION 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the “Digital Education Act.”
SECTION 2. Ready-To-Learn digital television. —

(1) IN GENERAL - The Secretary of the Department of Education is authorized to
award grants to, or enter into contracts or cooperative agreements with, eligible
television and broadcasting entities to develop, produce, and distribute educational
and instructional video programming for pre-school and elementary school children
and their parents, patterned after the Ready-To-Leam television program in the
United States applied to existing technological developments available to the public.

(2) AVAILABILITY — In making such grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements, the
Secretary shall ensure that eligible entities make programming widely available, with
support materials as appropriate, to young children, their parents, and childcare
workers.

SECTION 3. Educational programming. ~

(1) AWARDS — The Secretary shall award grants, contracts, cooperative agreements to
cligible entities to. —

(a) facilitate the development directly, or through contracts with producers of
children and family educational television programming, of —

i, educational programming for pre-school and elementary school
children; and



ii, accompanying support materials and services that promote the
effective use of such programming;

(b) facilitate the development of programming and digital content especially
designed for nationwide distribution over public television stations’ digital
broadcasting channels, Internet and mobile applications, containing Ready-
To-Leamn-based children’s programming and resources for parents and
caregivers; and

(©) enable eligible entities to contract with entities (such as public
telecommunications entities) so that programs developed under this section
are disseminated and distributed —

i, to the widest possible audience appropriate to be served by the
programming; and

ii, by the most appropriate distribution technologies.

(2) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES — to be eligible to receive a grant, contract, or cooperative
agreement under subsection (1), an entity shall be —

(a) a public telecommunications entity that is able to demonstrate a capacity for
the development and national distribution of educational and instructional
television programming of high quality for preschool and elementary school
children;

(b) able to demonstrate a capacity to contract with producers of children’s
television programming for the purpose of developing educational television
programming of high quality for preschool and elementary school children;
and

(©) Media developers, including but not limited to, web based developers, mobile
application based developers who demonstrate similar qualifications from the
immediately preceding paragraphs.

(3) CULTURAL EXPERIENCES — Programming developed under this section shall
reflect the recognition of diverse cultural experiences and the needs and experiences
of both boys and girls in engaging and preparing young children for schooling.

SECTION 4. Duties of the Secretary. — (1) To award grants, contracts, or cooperative
agreements to eligible entities, local public television stations, or community-based
organizations of demonstrated effectiveness, for the purpose of —

(A)addressing the learning needs of young children in limited english proficient
households, and developing appropriate educational and instructional television
programming to foster the school readiness of such children;


(B) developing programming and support materials to increase family literacy skills
among parents to assist parents in teaching their children and utilizing educational
television programming to promote school readiness; and

(C) developing and disseminating training materials, including —

i, interactive programs and programs adaptable to distance learning
technologies through web based interaction and mobile application that
are designed to enhance knowledge of children’s social and cognitive
skill development and positive adult-child interactions; and

ii, support materials to promote the effective use of materials developed
under subparagraph (B) among parents, early childhood development
personnel, elementary school teachers, public libraries, and after-school
program personnel caring for pre-school and elementary school children;

(2) to establish within the Department of Education a clearing-house to compile and
provide information, referrals, and model program materials and programming
obtained or developed under this part to parents, child care providers, and other
appropriate individuals or entities to assist such individuals and entities in accessing
programs and projects under this part.

SECTION 5. Application. Each entity desiring a grant, contract, or cooperative agreement
shall submit an application to the Secretary at such time, in such manner, and accompanied
by such information as the Secretary may reasonably require.

SECTION 6. Reports and evaluations. —

(1) ANNUAL REPORT TO SECRETARY ~ An cligible entity receiving funds under
this Act shall prepare and submit to the Secretary an annual report which contains
such information as the Secretary may require. At a minimum, the report shall
describe the program activities undertaken with funds received, including —

(A) the programming that has been developed directly or indirectly by the eligible
entity, and the target population of the programs developed;

(B)the support materials that have been developed to accompany the
programming and the method by which such materials are distributed to
consumers and users of the programming;

(C) the means by which the programming developed under this section has been
distributed, including the distance learning technologies that have been
utilized to make programming available and the geographic distribution
achieved through such technologies; and

(D) the initiatives undertaken by eligible entity to develop public-private
partnership to secure support for the development, distribution and broadcast


of educational and instructional programming.

(2) REPORT TO CONGRESS — The Secretary shall prepare and submit to relevant
committees of Congress a biannual report which includes —

(A)A summary of activities assisted; and

(B)A description of the training materials made available, the manner in which
outreach has been conducted to inform parents and childcare providers of the
availability of such materials, and the manner in which such materials have
been distributed in accordance with such section.

SECTION 7. Funding. — There are authorized such sums as may be necessary to carry out
the provisions of this Act.

SECTION 8. Implementing Rules and Regulations. - The Department of Education shall, in
consultation with the relevant stakeholders, promulgate the Implementing Rules and
Regulations (IRR) of this Act within six (6) months from the effectivity of this Act.

SECTION 9. Separability Clause. — If any provision, or part hereof, is held invalid or
‘unconstitutional, the remainder of the law or the provision shall remain valid and subsisting.

SECTION 10. Repealing Clause. — Any law, presidential decree or issuance, executive
order, letter of instruction, administrative order, rule or regulations contrary to or
inconsistent with, the provisions of this Act is hereby repealed, modified, or amended
accordingly.

SECTION 11. Effectivity Clause. This Act take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication
in at least two (2) newspaper of general circulation.

Approved.