PCO bats for media literacy in public schools' curriculum
The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) is set to work with the public education sector to help address the challenges of institutionalizing media and information literacy (MIL) in the primary and secondary education curriculum.
Communications Undersecretary Cherbett Karen Maralit said this as she announced the PCO’s digital media literacy campaign that is set to launch this year.
In her remarks at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York on Friday, March 10, the Palace official noted that pieces of legislation on media literacy were already introduced in both Houses of the Philippine Congress.
The measures seek to institutionalize the efforts of the Department of Education to include Media and Information Literacy (MIL) as a core subject in the current curriculum of primary and secondary education.
However, Maralit said there were challenges in integrating MIL into the basic education curriculum:
* Misconception about the MIL course as an educational technology-related subject
* Lack of training for MIL teachers
* The need to consider MIL as a core subject by tertiary education institutions (TEIs).
“The PCO shall work with the public [education] sector to help address these challenges,” she said. “We need the help of MIL experts, specialists, and established organizations to lend their strengths and help us in achieving the kind of Filipino society we wish to see where all are free to realize their best,” she added. Maralit was speaking at the CyberSafe Against Fake News: Being Smart, Being Safe, and Staying Ahead! Ensuring Women and Girls a Safe Online Experience, a side event of the PCO to the 67th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) in New York.
“The PCO shall work with the public [education] sector to help address these challenges,” she said. “We need the help of MIL experts, specialists, and established organizations to lend their strengths and help us in achieving the kind of Filipino society we wish to see where all are free to realize their best,” she added. Maralit was speaking at the CyberSafe Against Fake News: Being Smart, Being Safe, and Staying Ahead! Ensuring Women and Girls a Safe Online Experience, a side event of the PCO to the 67th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) in New York.
Empowering vulnerable populations
Meanwhile, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) discussed the measures it implemented to empower vulnerable populations to discern true and accurate information from fake news and to report any such abuses. In her speech during the same event, CHR Commissioner Fayda Dumarpa said they had implemented the Lila ang Kulay ng Boto Ko Campaign (Purple is the color of my vote), an education drive on women’s right to suffrage. CHR also created an online reporting portal for gender-based violence “to provide a platform for women and girls to report and seek assistance on different forms of violence either committed offline or in online spaces, including those arising from disinformation and misinformation.” According to Dumarpa, the fight against disinformation and misinformation requires direct consultation with the most vulnerable sectors of society, such as women and girls in vulnerable situations with special needs. “By doing so, we truly leave no one behind,” she said.