Technological advancement is at the core and forefront of the education sector and the legal profession in the Philippines, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte said on Thursday, Feb. 16.
The official was the guest of honor during the fellowship night of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ (IBP) 50th Founding Anniversary at the Waterfront Insular Hotel in Lanang, Davao City.
“Indeed, with modern technology within our reach, the future of legal practice seems bright and optimistic,” she told her colleagues in the legal profession.
“Technology is revolutionizing legal practice in unprecedented ways and transforming how lawyers provide legal services to clients and how the law is taught and learned,” Duterte added.
The Vice President underscored how “technology” has made law education “more accessible and efficient” through cloud storage, online subscription, and e-copies of legal papers, documents, textbooks, and the availability of Supreme Court (SC) Annotated Rules in tablets and other gadgets.
Even lawyers and law students can keep up with information, amendments, and development in legal interpretations and applications, she said.
Duterte also took note of how virtual courtrooms proved to be effective during the pandemic, and how artificial intelligence and software programs can do what was once heavy paperwork and administrative duties before.
“Legal professionals and practitioners can now collaborate easily and more dynamically with cloud-based technologies, which allows for increased productivity and faster decision-making,” she added.
But more than technology’s impact on the law profession, it is also at the core of how the Department of Education (DepEd), under her leadership, is trying to address the problems of basic education.
While the agency is pursuing the traditional track of adding more classrooms and hiring more teachers, it is also following the “other track.”
“The other track is to leverage on available technology worldwide — that is to create electronic classrooms, to subscribe to electronic libraries, to subscribe to electronic books, and amplify the best teachers through technology,” Duterte shared.