By Peter Alagos


Qatar’s competitiveness in the field of information and communications technology (ICT) has a significant impact in the delivery of quality education, particularly to students of the Philippine School Doha (PSD), an official said.
School principal Dr Alex Acosta said PSD students will benefit more from Qatar’s world-class Internet speeds, especially when the school transfers to its new campus in Abu Hamour.
Acosta said the school administration has shelved an offer to upgrade its online capabilities and opted to wait until PSD transfers to its new campus, which is expected to be occupied in 2017.
“Included in the construction plan is the capability of PSD to host our own servers, which will help both faculty and students in terms of research and access to a wide range of educational websites,” Acosta told Community during PSD’s field demonstration held at the Al Rayyan Sports Club on Friday.
The field demonstration, which was part of the school’s 23rd foundation day celebrations, featured themed performances from all PSD students. It was highlighted by cake cutting ceremony led by Philippine Ambassador Wilfredo Santos.
Acosta’s observations reflects “Qatar’s most significant strengths” noted in the Global Information Technology Report (GITR) 2015, which said the country ranked 27th in the world for “network readiness.”
“Qatar’s most significant strengths include government procurement of advanced tech, venture capital availability, mobile network coverage, households with personal computer, impact of ICTs on access to basic services, importance of ICTs to government vision, ICT use and government efficiency and quality of educational system,” the report said.
According to Acosta, Internet access has its “advantages and disadvantages,” as he cited the abundance of websites whose contents are “inappropriate” for students.
“Inside the campus, safety nets are in place and we make sure that all the sites available in our computers are mainly for educational purposes. However, we do not have any control over the students browsing activities once they leave the school.
“As an important form of prevention, PSD is also in constant partnership with the parents in monitoring and reminding our students to refrain from websites that are inappropriate for the youth,” Acosta stressed.
He added: “In this day and age, we can never be too careful because of the advancements in smartphone technology and because today’s youth are very tech savvy. They have access to the Internet outside the school and their homes because of these mobile devices.”
Only recently, the 2015 edition of the State of Broadband report said Qatar is first among developing countries in terms of Internet usage (91.5%), and ranked 12th overall globally.
The report, released in New York by the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development, ranked Qatar 15th at the world level on the indicator that measures the active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.


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