Developments in the Education Sector and their Challenges to Electronic Communications in the Philippines

This paper shall deal with factors that influence the educational enterprise, such as the continuing increase in student population without corresponding increase in funding, the need for alternative methods of course production and delivery, the availability of communication technologies in support of learning, and the increasing competition among institutions for students. Another concern today in the education sector is the emerging new learning paradigm that has highlighted the importance of electronic communications in the effective delivery of educational materials to students who need not attend classes in classrooms. The paper shall also focus on the role of electronic communications in the learning process, and discuss the increasing importance of electronic communication in the delivery of formal academic degree programs in the context of open learning and distance education under Philippine conditions.