The mini-conference aims to inquire upon the feasibility and development of private initiatives to contribute in the Philippine educational or learning system, as alternative else collaborating actors in this matter.
— Philippine Commons

23 April 2008

830-900 :: Registration

900-915 :: Invocation

915-1000 :: Introduction to Open Education
Speaker/org: Creative Commons Philippines
Atty. Jaime “Jimmy” Soriano
1000-1015 Q&A

1015-1030 :: Break

1030-1115 :: Creative empowerment and liberal education
Speaker/org: Friedrich Naumann Stiftung fur die Freiheit
Mr. Sigfried Herzog
1115-1030 Q&A

1130-1215 :: The public direction of Philippine education (primary and secondary)
Speaker/org: Department of Education
Atty. Geronimo “Indy” Sy
1215-1230 Q&A

1230-130 :: Lunch Break

130-215 :: Private initiatives towards open education: International/Local
Speaker/org: Creative Commons Philippines
Atty. Michael Vernon “Berne” Guerrero
215-230 Q&A

230-315 :: Private initiatives towards free and open books
Speaker/org: Bayanihan Books
Mr. Greg Moreno
315-330 Q&A

330-345 :: Break

345-430 :: commercial/business reaction to open content
Speaker/org: Vibal Foundation
Ms. Kristine Mandigma
430-445 Q&A

445-500 :: Closing remarks

I would like to thank all volunteers who believe in this project and the people spreading the word and recruiting more volunteers.

Bayanihan Books has also been mentioned in other websites as well:

• “Pinoy uses wiki model to make textbooks for public schools” is an article that appeared in Inquirer.net. It was written by fellow group member Erwin Oliva.
• The Philippine Commons, the local proponent of the Creative Commons license has included Bayanihan Books as one of the pioneer project in open content and education. The Creative Commons Philippines (CC-PH) is headed by Atty. Jaime N. Soriano, CPA, MNSA. Jane Park of the global Creative Commons website has also written a post about Bayanihan Books. Jun Asis, a proponent of elearning, also mentions Bayanihan Books in his post about Creative Commons.
• My former professor and friend Rommel Feria suggests merging Bayanihan Books with Curriki, a project by former Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy. Hmmn. Something to think about and discuss with the group one of these days.
• “Yearning to be Educated” is blog post by Anne (another member) who, just like me, is a product of public schools. We had the same experience with dilapidated textbooks but I think hers is worse because her surname starts with V. Through her blog, I found the blog of Sidney Snoeck that contains many touching photos of Filipino kids at school.

In 1998, the cost of each textbook was:
— 70 pesos for elementary books
— 120 pesos for secondary books

Last year, the cost went down to:
— 37 pesos for elementary
— 59 pesos for secondary.

This is one big step to make textbooks more accessible to more poor Filipino students. But, I believe we can still reduce this further, through Bayanihan Books.

Since the materials from the Bayanihan Books are royalty free, there is no need for publishers to pay the authors. The publishers will only shoulder the printing costs. Given that there are 17.5 million students enrolled in public schools, I’m sure publishers can earn millions of pesos with a low-margin, high volume, guaranteed payment scheme. The government needs less money to spend, more students get the complete books, the publishers earn lots of money. Everyone is happy. Perfect!!!

Furthermore, the Bayanihan Books are licensed using Creative Commons that explicitly allows the use of these materials by any publishers. Therefore, more publishers bidding for the government contract results to more competition and avoids the monopoly of a few big name publishers.

Another great benefit of Bayanihan Books is that printing does not need to be done by a single or few publishers. There is no need for a company based in Manila to supply the books of students in Cebu or Davao. After all, what’s so unique about printing a book anyway? It is the same banana whether it is printed in Baguio or in Laoag. The printing of the textbooks can be done locally. For example, DepEd can ask publishers in Cebu to bid for the textbooks that will be given to Cebuanos. Also, the local government of Cebu can subsidize the printing of these textbooks, further reducing the cost for DepEd. DepEd is happy, Cebu companies are happy, local government is happy, the students are happy. Again, everyone is happy. Isn’t that cool or what?

Localized printing also makes sure who’s responsible for the textbooks. DepEd Cebu and the local government can no longer point to DepEd Central Office or the publisher in Manila for failing to supply the textbooks. They can solve their problems without relying on centralized approval. And if they don’t address the problems, the local DepEd office and government has no one to blame but themselves.

(Note to self: I need to verify with Atty. Guerrero if printing the textbook constitutes a commercial use and what provisions should be added in our license.)

The Arellano University School of Law have launched (and I could say with a bang!) last January 14 the Philippine version of the Creative Commons license.

So why should there be a Philippine version? The law varies from country to country and it is important that we use a Creative Commons license adopted to our law so it could be enforced and give us protection.

The correct license is critical factor in the success of the Bayanihan Books because we want a license that would permit and encourage collaboration and sharing of textbook content. We also want to do away with the normal “closed” copyright so that anybody can use the textbook materials.

I am no lawyer and many of us will probably have trouble understanding the text contained in the licenses. But the good news is that Atty Jaime Soriano, Atty. Berne Guerrero, and the Arellano University School of Law are actively promoting the use of Creative Commons in the Philippines so that authors, scientists, artists, and educators can fully understand how CC can help them.

Congratulations to Atty. Soriano, Atty. Berne, their peers, and students for making this happen. This is truly a big step forward in advancing intellectual property rights in the Philippines.

Further readings:

• Share, remix, reuse–legally by Atty. Jaime Soriano.
• Promoting Creative Commons in the Philippines.
• Creative Common launches free Internet licensing of digital works by Mary Ann LL. Reyes

I wouldn’t mind having all the books, of course. But even if I want to, that is not possible.

In a public school, the number of students grow every year but the number of books do not. Some students will have books for Math, English, and History only while others will only have Science and Filipino. I don’t recall a time when all of us received books for all the subjects. It was even rare that a student had the complete set.

This was the case when I first attended school, in 1983. This was the case when I finished high school, in 1993. This is still the case today.

The problem with today’s school textbooks do not end there. Let me share what schoolteacher Antonio Calipjo Go discovered. After 10 years of studying textbooks, Mr. Go came to the conclusion that half of the public school textbooks in English, Filipino and Social Studies were “defective.” In 2002, he found 400 errors in a single public elementary textbook. And only last June, he again uncovered a lot of errors in seven Social Studies textbooks.

One almost feels relieved that many printed books are still in warehouses and cannot be distributed to school children because of assorted legal cases that involved the publishers. But then again, it’s disgusting how our tax pesos are wasted twice over on this matter. Our children either don’t get the books, or they get them flawed.

Our public education system has a lot of problems, dilapidated classrooms and lack of teachers among them. But I believe that if there is one thing we ordinary Filipinos can solve, it is the availability of quality textbooks.

How can we make quality textbooks available to every school child in the country?

Normally, if you want to write a book, you agree with a publisher on the topic and sign a contract with them. You, the author, are in charge of writing the content, while the publisher assigns a team composed of editors, illustrators, and proofreaders to make sure that the final manuscript is correct before it gets printed. During the creation phase, only you and the publisher’s team have access to the manuscripts. When the manuscript is ready, it is given to the printing team who turns it into a book.

For public school textbooks, a little more care is applied. To ensure the quality of textbooks, the Department of Education (or DepEd) has a four-step evaluation process, involving a few more evaluators and authorities.

This was already in place before Mr. Go came came out with his findings. DepEd’s process is failing and we need a different approach to ensure the quality of public textbooks.

Now what if you made your book available on the Internet as you write it? What if for every chapter you have written, you publish it in your website and let anyone read it and give you feedback. What if you up the notch further and allow other people to edit your book even while you are sleeping or on a date (or both)? If someone sees a spelling error, let him correct it right away. The next time you visit your website, you will see an updated version with the spelling mistakes gone.

Isn’t this what is being done by publishers right now? Yes, but the publisher limits the number of people who review your book. And these people are not reviewing only one book; they are working on several at a time. What the Internet allows is a way to tap the sheer thousands of teachers, educators, professionals, college students, parents, businessmen, managers and other experts to help produce high-quality textbooks. Can you imagine how much attention is now given to your one book?

The practice of collaborating and corroborating on the Internet to create and build up comprehensive and accurate piles of information is based on the the open-source model that has its roots in the software industry. Since the early days of the Internet, many programmers around the world have banded into a community that writes software not because of financial reward but of a desire to improve the world. These programmers not only give their software for free, but they also make sure that other programmers would be able to modify the software as they see fit. This unorthodox approach (at least in its early adoption) have produced high-quality software that powers the Internet and many industries around the world. This community-based model is so effective that it has been adopted to create the history’s largest encyclopedia.

Wikipedia is one of the world’s most visited websites, and is a highly reliable source of information in the Internet. Its collection far exceeds any encyclopedia ever written and is even available in many languages. Though it cannot guarantee 100% correctness for all entries (no encyclopedia can), its credibility has never been questioned and it has in fact become the leading news source in the world. The Wikipedia allows anyone to contribute an entry, or update an existing entry. Wikipedia is an undeniable proof that a community-based model works.

The community-based model works because the people involved share a passion for sharing what they know with others. Mothers who enjoy cooking love sharing their recipes with their neighbors and friends. People who do things out of love naturally want the company of people who share their passion. The Internet has created a world where like-minded people can work together unconstrained by geography, gender, or age.

Writing textbooks for school children is not the same as collaborating in a script for another Judy Ann Santos movie. We are writing textbooks that can give poor Filipino school children a chance at a decent future. It sounds cliche but it is worth reiterating that our country’s future lies with children and it is our moral obligation to shape that future.

Beyond the efficiency and benefits of having a million hands collaborate on writing textbooks is the importance of making knowledge available to everyone. No single publisher should own the content of our textbooks and restrict who can read them. Every Filipino should have access to every information that is available in our Math, English, or Science textbooks in any form - that includes making them available in the Internet. The role of publishers then is to simply print and deliver the books.

Publishers employ writers, illustrators, layout artists, editors, proofreaders, managers to work on these textbooks. If there is no need for publishers to employ this amount of manpower to produce a textbook (after all the book only needs to get printed), imagine how much money can the government save for each textbook? Book authors typically receive royalty payments for every book sold, which the publisher just happily adds up to the book’s sale price, and which we eventually pay with our taxes. Imagine the amount of money that can be saved, money that can be used to buy more books so that public school children can now go home with all the books they need.

The government usually bids textbook projects to local publishers. In the spirit of fairness, a publisher may supply the English books, while another publisher the Math books, or a publisher may supply all elementary textbooks while another is in charge of high school textbooks. In any case, a publisher is in charge of a specific book that will be distributed to all school children in the country. There are 17.5 million students enrolled in public schools, and it doesn’t take an MBA to figure out that this translates to hundreds of millions of pesos for a few publishers. If the government wants to spread opportunities to the whole country, while not let a publisher in Baguio supply the books in Baguio? So with a publisher in Cebu, an NGO in Davao, or a community organization in Palawan. After all, the manuscripts are ready and the publishers only need to take care of is printing and delivery.

The community-based model gives every poor Filipino child a better chance to high-quality textbooks. This model will reduce the cost of each textbook allowing the government to reach more children given our country’s limited financial capability.

Sorry for sounding like a home-TV shopping segment, but wait, there’s more.

A community-based model has a natural acknowledgment system that gives credit where credit is due. I’ll let you in on a dark secret in book writing that publishers don’t want you to know. The authors whose names you see on the cover of the books are not always the ones who wrote it. Many times, authors with PhD’s or has held positions in universities are included to increase the marketability of the book. Though these famous names may review the book once in a while, the bulk of the writing job usually goes to the lesser known author or ghost writers hired by the publisher. In a community, every contribution, big or small, is attributed to the contributor just like the list of credits we see at the end of a movie. While it could be impractical to list all contributors in the print copy, their names will not be forgotten because it will always be available in the Internet for anyone to see.

Moving forward, what we want to do are:

1. Produce textbook materials for every subject in every grade level and make it available on the Internet.
2. Convince the government to adopt these materials, and print and distribute them to public schools.

These are not easily achievable goals but relatively, the first one is easier. After all, this has already been done with Wikipedia. What makes the first goal different from sites like Wikipedia is that writing a textbook requires a different approach than writing an article to be used as reference. Writing a textbook requires input from people who understand how children learn because there are approaches and factors to consider as a child progresses in his/her study.

The second goal is more difficult and it will definitely require more than an essay. Already, friends are telling me how high the mountain I need to climb to get someone in the government just to hear me out. And I don’t deny there are moments I think of not pursuing this cause.

That is why I am seeking your help.

I don’t have a name yet for this cause. I always admire Nicholas Negroponte with his One Laptop Per Child dream but I can’t call this “one book per child” because every poor Filipino school child needs more. Please put on your thinking cap and come-up with a name for this cause. Once we have a name, we will start a website as a rallying point. From then on, let God show us the way.

I have friends who have signified support but that is not enough. We are the SMS capital of the world and we are the dominant force in Friendster. Let’s use our innate talent to connect with other people to improve our education system and give our children a chance at a better future.

The other day someone told me I’m crazy. So be it.

As always, a very rich and convincing presentation from Larry Lessig.

The Philippine Board on Books for Young People leads the celebration of this annual event.

All our children are born as artists. I believe so. My 6-year old paints and my 2-year old loves to sing all day. As they grow old, many of their creative talents are put aside as they focus more on mathematics, sciences, history and other disciplines that we know are more important than painting or singing.

Why is Math more important than singing? As Sir Ken Robinson points out, every educational system on the planet was designed to meet the needs of 19th century industrialization. Subjects that are useful at work are at the top of the hierarchy. This is why our government is establishing more science schools and spends more money on science and engineering than on the arts.

As parents, we are proud of what our kids can do. We love seeing them singing, dancing, acting out commercials from TV, or building devices out of blocks or paper. Children do things that they like but as they grow old we tell them not to paint because they can never get a job as an artists, or as a singer, or as a dancer. A few years ago, there was a TV commercial (by PLDT) about a college student who was sent to the city to study and become a doctor, just like his father. As it turned out, the boy doesn’t want to become a doctor. He wants to take Fine Arts but he was too afraid to tell his father so as not to disappoint him. Fortunately, his father eventually supported him.

Below is a presentation by Sir Robinson on education and creativity. It is an entertaining and mind-opening presentation on how we should prepare our kids for the future. In this presentation he told the story of Gillian Lynne. When she was a kid, the school told her parents that she has a learning disorder — that she can’t concentrate. Her parents decided to consult a doctor. In the meeting, the doctor asked Gillian’s parents to leave her alone in the room. But before they left, the doctor turned on the radio. After a brief moment, Gillian started dancing. The doctor told her parents that Gillian is not sick; she is a dancer and they should enroll her in a dance school. Today, kids like Gillian would be under medication for having ADHD.

… by seeing our creative capacities for the richness that they are and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being so they can face this future. By the way, we may never see this future but they will. And our job is to help them make something of it.

— Sir Ken Robinson

The 5 agreements were signed last April 21 during a visit by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to China. The total worth of the agreements is around US$ 904.38 million.

26 billion pesos can do a lot of good things for the country’s computer education programs. Let’s just wish the Cyber Education Project will not become another computer overpricing issue at DepEd.

Update (7 Aug 2007):
When I first heard about this big computerization project, I was hoping for the best even though inside me I still worry that corrupt government officials along with their friends and relatives would again use this to increase their ill-gotten wealth. The project has not started yet but it is already surrounded by controversies. Read the story in Inquirer.

The recent report from ADB also tells us a very sad story. Our net enrollment deteriorated over the past two decades - from 96% in 1990 down to 94% in 2004. ADB also reported that 18.1% of children aged 6 to 12 are out of schools.

Is the government aware of this? Can our politicians think of better use of their time (and taxpayers’ money) rather than wasting it on charter change and impeachment?

What can we do?