British firm ties up with Bataan to digitally aid teachers, students

By Ernie Esconde

September 26, 2018, 11:49 am

BALANGA CITY, Bataan-- A British company on Monday tied up with the city government of Balanga and the provincial government of Bataan to provide digital aid or platform to lessen the burden of teachers and help improve the learning capacity of students.

“With the use of our platform, 85 percent to 90 percent would be lessened to the clerical tasks of the teachers,” said Rosemarie Sison, Philippines country manager of Zzish Ltd. of London.

Sison cited as an example the usual checking of test papers by teachers.

“It takes time for teachers to get the results but with this platform, while the students are still answering, there are results immediately,” she said.

Sison said with their technology, there is no more to download whether the device used is tablet or laptop.

“Just need internet connection and a browser like Firefox or Google and will be connected to ZzishHub,” she said.

“What was done with chalks and pencils is digitized,” said Dr. Charles Wiles, Zzish founder and chief operating officer.

“I am very much impressed. It is a big help to teachers. It is very good that Balanga City is one of the first sites of the project,” Mayor Francis Garcia said.

He said that for the last two years, they have provided public high schools with 600 sets of computers and another 400 to barangay learning centers.

Garcia added that they have also constructed two four-storey IT buildings for elementary schools that will be ready in the opening of schools next year.

“Pricing is reasonable. The amount of time consumed by teachers will be lessened. It will enhance knowledge to students,” he said.

The mayor said the project will not financially burden parents and teachers. He said that funds will come from the Special Education Fund and private donors.

Zzish will test pilot eight schools (four in Bataan towns and four in Balanga City) and then include in the project 200 public schools in the province and 20 from the city.

Sison said Zzish woud save teachers’ hours of personalizing teaching with the use of classroom quiz apps to instantly understand what help each student needs and then effortlessly assign the best resource or app to help them improve their learning.

“It will say goodbye to boring classroom tests with the use of digital assessment tools that can be plugged into ZzishHub,” she said.

The project is in coordination with the city and provincial divisions of schools of the Department of Education. (PNA)

Comments