SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian on Thursday stressed the need to build additional cell sites to connect more villages to the internet.

He called for sustained efforts to bridge the nationwide digital divide after the Philippines jumped from number 111 to the 86th spot in Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index.

The Department of Education earlier admitted that only 3.6 million of the 22 million public school learners have access to the internet and only 1.9 million have their own laptops.

Project BASS-Bandwidth and Signal Statistics co-founder Wilson Chua shared in the Medium Post that 87 percent of villages or 36,607 out of 42,055 do not have cell sites.

Gatchalian, who heads the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture, reiterated that the country has an opportunity to bridge the digital divide, citing the the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act or Bayanihan 2 which eased requirements for cell tower construction.

Gatchalian is considering filing a bill that would provide a free laptop and internet allowance to every learner in the country.

According to the Center for Educational Measurement, around 60 percent of learners who participated in the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment did not have access to computers and the internet.

“Access to the internet and laptops now is as basic as having access to water or electricity. In the same way as no household can survive without electricity or water, no learner can survive now without access to the internet and gadgets,”  Gatchalian said.

“The bill we are formulating is embracing the principle of shared responsibility. All of us will have to put in a share to bring the internet to the home of every learner. While this will be costly, the future returns will also be big because if our learners improve their outcomes, the whole country will benefit from it,” he concluded.