Angeles school gets support from Khan PH to jump-start digital transformation

PAMPANGA, Philippines – Khan Academy Philippines (Khan PH) partnered with Apl.de.Ap Foundation International (APLFI) and Accenture Philppines to support the digital transformation in education of Sapang Bato National High School (SBNHS) in Angeles City to prepare its students for 21st century work.

The partnership between these companies coincided with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo’s trade mission in the country from March 11-12, 2024.

Khan Academy platform will offer learning sessions on computer programming for free and will provide certificates of completion for skills mastery in computing. Meanwhile, Accenture will donate laptops and also provide coding and other digital skilling programs to the school through Accenture’s Skills to Succeed Academy which was launched in the Philippines in 2018.

Among the objectives of Raimondo’s trade mission to the country was to bring job prospects from US-based companies to the Philippines. It also focused on how American technology could upskill Filipino workers in the field of computer programming.

“Khan Academy is an online platform. It’s easy enough for anyone to just log in to our website to access all the materials,” Khan PH executive director Denise Fabella told Rappler on Tuesday, March 19.

“(Though this) was a collaborative event for Khan Academy Philippines, Apl.de.Ap Foundation, and Accenture. We are open to working with different organizations to help support other schools,” she added.

Abdon Aguilar, SBNHS principal, said the project would benefit 1,664 students.

“Our students as well as our teachers can now access online platforms for free that they can use in their English, Math, and Science subjects. The free educational upskill programs will help students reach greater opportunities in the future,” Aguilar told Rappler in Kapampangan.

“Khan Academy will provide the online platform, Accenture donated the second hand laptops, while APLFI will provide our school with the internet connection,” he added.

SBNHS consists of 1,202 junior high school and 462 senior high school students in its 30-room campus. It is also known as the “school with golden opportunities.”

“Definitely this has a big impact in our lessons especially to our teachers as it becomes easier and more interactive especially since they are 21st century learners. That’s why they provided educational technology as a preparation for their future,” Aguilar said.

An initial batch of 50 preowned Hewlett Packard laptops were given to SBNHS S during a handover ceremony on March 18. 

Khan PH was founded by Geraldine Acuña-Sunshine. She is the first Filipino to serve as one of the governing boards at Harvard University. She is a corporate lawyer, community builder, and social impact entrepreneur. Sunshine is also the president of the Philippine Living Heritage Initiative whose mission is to deepen Filipino identity through education across the global Filipino diaspora.

APLFI is a non-profit organization founded by Filipino-American Grammy award-winning musical artist Allan Pineda Lindo, known as Apl.de.Ap of the Black Eyed Peas. APLFI has been supporting SBNHS since 2019, as Sapang Bato is the artist’s birthplace. His mom and relatives still reside there.

“As APLFI’s founder, I’m thrilled to bring Khan Academy, a global education pioneer, to the Philippines through our partnership with Khan PH and Accenture. This move not only highlights our commitment to excellence in education for my hometown and beyond but ensures that Filipinos are prepared to meet global standards. Together, we’re setting a new benchmark for educational empowerment in the country,” Apl.de.Ap said in a statement.

The project is a Khan PH strategy in integrating its cutting-edge education technology into the Philippine school system. It aims to provide one million students across the country access to the Khan Academy platform in their schools by 2026 with its “1 Million Kids Khan Do It!” initiative. – Rappler.com