Launched in December 2004, the Smart Schools Program started out with the aim of connecting public high schools to the Internet. As a telco, Smart has been able to rapidly utilize its emerging wireless broadband business to provide connectivity to its public high school partners – even in areas without fixed line connections.

Smart is addressing the challenge of making a felt impact given the limited initial target of public high school recipients of one-year broadband connection grants. By innovating on the traditional corporate donation model, the Smart Schools Program adopted a training-led deployment strategy to ensure that teachers and schools are properly prepared to absorb the new technologies.

Smart also engaged its partners – the Philippine Business for Social Progress, Microsoft Philippines Partners in Learning, and companies within the PLDT group – for implementation and training.

To further consolidate its thrust, Smart tapped its network of over 40 colleges and universities nationwide under its Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (SWEEP) as training hubs. Through this approach, some 2,000 public high school teachers have already been trained with participants now mentoring other teachers. The innovative strategy resulted into a bigger program training capacity, a more involved participation of partner schools in the program’s fledging online community and a stronger commitment to sustain the program beyond the initial one-year connectivity grant with some partners even utilizing their computer laboratories as training centers and community e-centers.

The Smart Schools Program experience has, so far, underscored the importance of trainings, partnerships and communities in ‘broadbanding’ education.

For more information, please visit www.smartschools.ph