The Philippine Department of Education (DepEd), through the Education Centre for AI Research (ECAIR), presented its national framework to advance artificial intelligence in the public education sector at the AI Impact Summit in India, held from February 16-21, 2026.
“At DepEd, we are deliberate about building AI that strengthens public institutions, protects our learners, and delivers measurable results at scale. ECAIR reflects our commitment to move beyond experimentation and toward responsible transformation across our entire education system,” said Education Secretary Sonny Angara.
Filipino-led AI education innovations
Among the Filipino-led AI innovations in the public education sector showcased are the following:
• SIGLA: automates school health monitoring and reporting, reduces administrative workload and time-saving of up to 60,000 hours per year for 34,000 teachers
• SABAY: AI-supported digital triage system designed to advance specialist academic support for 48,000 public schools, especially for early-grade learners.
DepEd shared ECAIR’s four-part framework, designed to build confidence in AI solutions in the public education sector by ensuring technical readiness, clear ownership, governance, and transparency.
“In a system serving over 24 million learners, even a one per cent gain in efficiency has a massive impact on our country’s education system. By integrating AI into DepEd’s operations, we are saving millions of hours of our teachers’ time so they can focus on teaching,” ECAIR Governance and Delivery lead Elmo Domino Jose said.
The Philippines is among the six countries selected for the AI Observatory’s Ministry of Education AI Challenge, the only one from Southeast Asia.
