The Local Government Unit of Cagayan de Oro City through its Local School Board, and the Department of Science and Technology region 10, is set to demonstrate a digital education system in two public high schools in the city through an innovation of a startup company, WELA Online Corp. The partnership involves introducing a smart educational system, in line with LGU CDO’s goal towards digital transformation and becoming a smart and sustainable city.
The project aims to digitalize recording of academic reports, minimize redundancy of data input and reduce the number of needed grading forms to be filled-out by 75%; To enable real-time attendance tracking through an RFID system and mobile application; and to establish an effective, direct, and safe communication channel between teachers and parents through a mobile application.
The Pedro “Oloy” N. Roa High School and Puntod National High School have been selected as the pilot public schools for implementing the Smart Education Technology Systems, where more than 3,000 students and over 100 teachers are expected to benefit from this collaboration.
The Wela School system has already shown effectiveness in over 300 schools in the country and abroad, significantly improving time efficiency. The time taken for academic report preparation is reduced from 14 days to an average of just two days, and the adaptation period for schools to the platform is cut down by 93% compared to traditional methods.
The system also provides analytics on the student and class performance (attendance and grades), with an analytics dashboard that can track real-time the student attendance and grades. It also comes with a downloadable mobile application for Android and iOS operating systems that has a web-based system and a mobile application to track student performance. Lastly, it features a secured cloud-based servers for data storage with pertinent cybersecurity certifications (National Privacy Commission Registration stating compliance with Data Privacy Act of 2012 and DICT-recognized cybersecurity assessment provider)
The WELA Online Corp. is a multi-awarded CDO-homegrown tech startup focused on Education Technology. The company provides web-based school management systems and other innovations to public and private schools.
The company was a graduate incubatee of the CDObites, a USTP-based Technology Business Incubator Initially funded by the DOST Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) in November 2019 with a Php 3 Million grant. The company is now the only Filipino School System Company with International Partners and clients from Japan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and more.
The Research Development and Innovation Unit of DOST-X remains committed to supporting startups and Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) in the region, aligned with DOST’s vision of fostering an innovation-driven economy. Startups seeking additional training and networking opportunities are encouraged to reach out to us at info@region10.dost.gov.ph. (Nova Belle Olloves/DOST 10)