CAMARINES Sur 2nd District Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte filed a bill that seeks to recognize businesses that share their technology or help enhance educators’ technology capabilities.

House Bill 8466 or the proposed Business and Education Sharing Technology or BEST Act aims to encourage businesses to help schools provide educational technologies.

“Local businesses can play a key role in moving technology into schools, enhancing educators’ technology capabilities, and making every student technologically literate,” Villafuerte said in his explanatory note.

The lawmaker said educational technologies help children learn and teachers teach.

“Students who learn to use educational technologies are prepared for both high wage high skilled jobs and higher education,” the lawmaker added.

House Bill 8466 mandates the Department of Education to form a committee composed of qualified individuals, such as representatives from the government, academe, private sector and appropriate sectors that will select the business engaged in technology partnership with schools to receive a BEST award.

To be eligible for recognition, a business must be in active partnership with a school, consortium of schools, or local educational agency.

The purpose of the partnership must be to enhance educators’ technology capabilities and to make students technology literate.

Representatives of any educational institutions or schools can nominate businesses for the BEST award.