Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones commends its long-time private partner Globe as it spearheads the program's integration in K-to-12 Curriculum during the five-day National Summit for Digital Citizenship and Responsibility (NSDCR) at the Century Park Hotel Manila.

Digital Thumbprint Program (DTP) aims to educate public and private high school students on proper online behavior as well as encourage students, teachers, and parents to participate in creating an open, inclusive, collaborative, and safe online environment.

“We are in a connected world where anyone can easily have access to the internet. While we believe that the internet is fundamental to achieving inclusive and equitable quality education, we are also aware that it exposes our youth to many potential risks that may harm them,” the Education Chief underscored.

Digital Citizenship, a vital aspect of educating the youth, is one of the key advocacies of Globe. Amid the digital age, it is crucial that the youth are equipped with the right information to help them make proper decisions in their daily actions in the online world.

By integrating Digital Citizenship and Responsibility into the K-to-12 curriculum, the DTP modules will be further developed for inclusion in the values formation subject. This way, all students nationwide will benefit from the lessons on digital citizenship and learn about the responsibilities that come with being online.

Briones further highlighted how beneficial the program is to the learners. “This led us to adopt Globe's Digital Thumbprint Program after seeing how it has created a positive impact on the students and teachers who have undergone the workshops.”

“By integrating the program in the delivery of curriculum targets, all students can better learn how to be conscious of their personal security and well-being when online and eventually, become responsible internet users,” she added.

This collaboration with DepEd is a breakthrough triumph for Globe's cyber-wellness program, which has provided 1.9 million students and teachers across the country access to DTP modules since its introduction in 2016.

“We are deeply honored to have our Digital Thumbprint Program become an integral part of DepEd's K- to-12 curriculum delivery content,” Yoly Crisanto, Globe Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications said. "Since DTP was launched three years ago as a free workshop, it has been our mission to reach out to as many students, teachers, and parents as we can. With the pervasiveness of the internet and the country's move towards digitalization, the level of risks for online users also increases. This drives us to advocate for responsible digital citizenship to encourage critical thinking and prevent online abuse,” she said.

The partnership between DepEd and Globe on DTP is a significant achievement both in the field of education and the digital community as it was made before educators, including over 500 experts from DepEd representing the National Office, its 17 regional offices, and all 220 DepEd division offices handling values formation and curriculum delivery. Summit participants came from across the country, including the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao.

The summit updates the participants on the status and issues related to the use of digital technologies, provides learning content and tools on safe and responsible online citizenship, and empowers them on how to present the learning modules and identify the needs and ways to forward and foster digital citizenship and responsibility among DepEd personnel, teachers, students, and parents.

For its part, Globe brought its team of workshop facilitators to deliver and help cascade the DTP workshop content to DepEd participants. Globe also collaborated with DepEd's pool of workshop facilitators to aid in the development of concrete and actionable curriculum delivery plans by the end of the five-day summit.