But this does not faze other programs that bank on the massive power of technology to spur the development of education in the most far-flung areas of the country, where sadly, education and cutting-edge material may not always be available.

Text2Teach is an educational program that utilizes mobile phone technology to enable teachers and students to access more than 900 multi-media educational materials like video, pictures, text or audio files by requesting them via text. The program began as a local offshoot of mobile phone giant Nokia’s Bridge-it Project, which combines existing mobile products and satellite technologies to deliver digital, multimedia materials to teachers and students.

Text2Teach was launched in 2002, and has since managed to serve 900,000 students from 204 public elementary schools in Quezon City, Manila, Batangas, Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, Antique, Cagayan de Oro City, Maguindanao, Cotabato City, North and South Cotabato, and Sharif Kabunsuan.

What gives the program its edge is its relative simplicity. With mobile phones and monthly prepaid load allowance supplied by Nokia and Globe, public schools are able to access a library of Science, English, and Math videos provided by Pearson and SEAMEO Innotech. Each video is supported by targeted lesson plans that integrate supporting exercises and activities already linked to the curriculum. As a result, teachers need not change the way they led their classrooms because they used Text2Teach materials in the context of the curriculum objectives which they already teach with.

This was something that Martin Sandelin, Nokia vice president for corporate responsibility and community involvement, wanted to stress from the project’s very beginnings.

"The most important thing is that this is about education, about children being given opportunities to learn and live up to their potential, about the future being empowered by technology," Sandelin says. "This is also about making that technology simple enough so that the teachers can master it, because the truth of the matter is that most children today know more about technology than most adults."

Of course, all of this did not go unnoticed. Even before its pilot year was over, the program received two awards at the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) - Philippines 2004 Gold Quill Awards.

In 2006, the program bested 50 other entries to win the Asian Corporate Social Responsibility Award. Studies done by the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Science and Mathematics (UP-NISMED). The UP Demographic Research and Development Foundation, Inc. (UP-DRDF) also supports the program’s effectiveness.

The UP-NISMED report said that absenteeism was reduced among students attending Text2Teach classes. Student performance also increased as gleaned by higher average scores in science. Interaction between teachers and students as well as among students got a boost, resulting to a generally upbeat classroom environment.

The UPDRDF research also complemented the earlier research with findings from T2T schools based in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Just recently, the organizations behind the project — Nokia Philippines, Ayala Foundation, the SouthEast Asian Ministers of Education OrganizationInnotech (SEAMEO-Innotech), and Globe — announced that the program will be made available to additional 500 public elementary schools in the next three years, with Nokia donating P27 million to further that goal.

Sandelin believes that this further push on the part of the company and the program partners will underscore that technology’s involvement in education is most welcome.

"The enthusiasm with which teachers have embraced Text2Teach shows that this project is not about technology but about education strengthened by technology. The success of Text2Teach is also a result of the fact that this is a national Philippine project that has brought together the Department of Education, Ayala Foundation, Globe, and SEAMEO-Innotech," he said.

Other project partners, like Globe and SEAMEO-Innotech, will concentrate on developments in technology delivery platforms and skills training for teachers who will be exposed to new technologies in utilizing Text2Teach, respectively.

"We hope to further strengthen our collaboration at all levels among members of the Text2Teach alliance, among our benefactors, and among our partners in each and every community that we will reach," says Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala II, co-vice chairman of Ayala Foundation, Inc., of the developments the program will be undertaking in the next three years. "Together we can continue to spread the impact of Text2Teach by showing how alliances such as ours can address what might seem like insurmountable obstacles to development."