These days, computer literacy has become a job qualification as basic as a pleasing personality and a college degree.

The influence of computers and everything that goes with information technology (IT), has become so pervasive that it has changed the way we view things, solve problems and do business with one another. From managers to secretaries and even furniture delivery crew and supervisors-- a working knowledge of software applications is, at the very least, a plus factor that equates to better paying jobs.

Those who wish to go a step further take up computer-oriented courses in college, or earn a degree in IT, just in case the next wave of demands for IT-skilled workers sweep them off to greener pastures.

�Disciplines like Engineering and Management have always been there, but the future of human endeavor lies in IT. I want to be a part of it,� said applications developer Alan Manansala of Active Business Solutions, Inc.

In the Philippines, interest in IT has been ever-increasing since its introduction as a degree program in the 1980s. Figures from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) showed that over the past seven years, IT enrolment grew considerably faster than the rate of total tertiary level enrolment.

Paulo Noel Paje, a computer science professor at the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Engineering, warned, however, that this interest in IT has its good and bad implications. Good, because it shows people�s willingness to learn and be educated.

�One must understand,� he said, �investing in IT industry is cheaper than putting up factories to make garments and soaps.�

Paje explained however, that the demand for IT courses has not translated to the generation of quality, world-class and marketable IT personnel.

�Quantity is different from quality,� he said. Paje suggested further that government should conduct a thorough study on schools offering IT programs to check if their courses respond to market demand, and if these programs are really offering the best in IT.

Some IT analysts pointed out that CHED�s policies and requirements for schools offering IT programs seem to be quite lenient.

A CHED memorandum order on policies and standards for IT education (CMO No. 60) sets as a minimum requirement the provision that �at least 20% of a school�s computer equipment should have been manufactured within the last four years.�

The order also stipulated that no more than two students can occupy and make use of a work station.

Analysts said that with these provisions, CHED automatically allowed IT schools to dismiss the ideal 1:1 student-computer ratio. And since new developments in computer systems� capabilities come up every three to six months, four years may be too long a time to wait for schools to upgrade their facilities.

The policies likewise do not mention any requirement for the remaining 80% of the computer equipment.

Similarly, it seems that not much is expected from the deans and department chairs of IT schools and schools offering IT programs. Under CHED�s general qualifications, having a master�s degree in an IT program is already a sufficient credential to make one eligible for deanship.

To make up for this seeming leniency, CHED is requiring department heads without IT industry experience to have a Board of Industry Advisors, which, as the CMO terms it, is a �component of the industry-academe linkage program.�

CHED officials said there are plans to revise CMO No. 60 to make it stricter and more efficient.

The CMO concentrates on three major degree IT programs, namely: Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Information Technology, and Information Management.

CHED admits that the country has no �Centers of Excellence� when it comes to IT education. Even prestigious universities such as the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Ateneo de Manila University, and De La Salle University, can only measure up to �Centers of Development,� along with 20 other schools granted P1 million each to fund a three-year IT education upgrading program.

Some insist, however, that P1million is too small an amount to stretch over a three year period.

Despite disheartening conditions, many believe that the future is bright for IT development in the country.

In the Global New E-Economy Index (GNEI) launched in June 2000 by the international research and consulting firm Meta Group Inc., the Philippines topped 46 other countries, including the United States, in the category �knowledge jobs,� which measured the number of skilled workers in a given country.

The new index abandoned what it termed as the �obsolete� measures of productivity such as gross domestic and national products. It examined instead a country�s technological productivity through five �digital economy indicators,� namely: technological innovation, movement toward a digital economy, globalization, economic dynamism, and knowledge jobs.

The United States is the over-all leader in the index, followed by Japan, Germany, France, Finland, Canada, and the United Kingdom. At the bottom of the list of the index are South Africa, Venezuela, Slovenia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Just below the upper-half of the list, ranking 26th over-all, is the Philippines.

Unfortunately, even as META recognized the country�s skilled workforce, the other determinants quickly doused the country�s chances to score high. The Philippines fared poorly mostly in terms of equipment and investments in research and development.

It also faces the problem of brain drain.

�For as long as there is one person thinking of going abroad, we won�t get anywhere,� reproached Czarina Dollente, a 20-year-old graduating computer science major at AMA Computer College.

Asked whether she plans to work abroad, though, she reconsiders: �Then again, they really pay well!�

Lack of jobs and low pay are some of the reasons why skilled professionals leave the country and work abroad. Relevant but unofficial numbers cited in the Investigative Magazine (July 2001) showed that the country produces some 200,000 IT-skilled and trained people every year. And while statistics show that many IT-trained people are gainfully employed, many choose to go abroad in search of high paying IT jobs. A programmer�s salary in the Philippines range from P20,000 to P30,000 a month. This is small when compared to the average $30 (P1,500) an hour earned by an IT programmer abroad.

�Our government institutions are not even prepared to absorb our IT professionals,� lamented Paje.

�In the Philippines, they are poorly paid, undervalued and, more often than not, exploited. The salary level is pathetically low that surviving with dignity is impossible,� he added.

Maria Luisa Azugue, a senior applications designer of Active Business Solutions, Inc.�a consulting and systems integration company, thinks the situation goes far beyond the law of �supply and demand.�

�Not only are professionals looking for greener pastures, they are also looking for more exposure, challenges and opportunities for advancement that are not just (yet) present here in our country,� Azugue said.

Attempts to solve problems of quality and salary in the local IT industry are clearly reflected in the chapter on human resources for e-services found in the Internet Strategy of the Philippines (ISP.COM). Presented in July at the Information Technology and Electronic Commerce Council (ITECC) Business Development Committee review, the draft strategy defined the different skill sets as �users� and �creators� of information technology.

Other plans suggested also include developing and internship or work-study program for graduating students who would then be hired after graduation, an on-the-job training with leading IT companies, and an online database for new graduates from which the industry can recruit employees.

ISP.com also sees the need to address what it termed as �inherent systemic problems.� These problems focused mainly on incompetencies in basic mathematics, science and English from which technical and analytical skills are built.

Mapua Institute of Technology President Reynaldo Vea believes that what is essential in a knowledge-based economy are knowledge and the people who apply knowledge.

In a speech delivered before the 4th National Congress of CHED in May this year, Vea said: �If we aim high then we should even as of now be thinking of IT research in our schools. If we aim low then the challenge can be limited to educating the quality IT professionals that the world needs in staggering quantities.�

It�s not a question of feasibility, because IT already exists in the country. The issue lies in whether we�ll be globally competitive.

IT analysts say that the country�s information technology is propped up by three uneven legs: education downgraded by lenient policies, sluggish research and development, and a skilled workforce who would rather work abroad.

Azugue asserts: �There�s no perfect timing for anything. It�s a question of whether we�ll have to eat up whatever is left by those who got there first.�