By Richa Noriega

Four young people from public schools represented the Philippines in an international information technology (IT) competition last month and bested 19 countries.

The Philippine team, comprising the four youths who study at public high schools, participated in the Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities (GITC) in Busan, South Korea, last Nov. 25 to 29.

The GITC is an annual competition in IT for youth with disabilities. It is hosted by Rehabilitation International (RI) Korea and their partners to bridge the digital divide and information gaps of persons with disabilities, as well as promote their participation towards accessing higher education and decent employment.

The Philippine team was composed of Valenzuela National High School’s Florenz Jaime Fernandez ,who has low vision, and Keith Rafael Ignacio, who has a learning disability; Manila High School’s Karl Francis Du, who is deaf; and General Pio Del Pilar National High School’s Ace Benedict Dayto, who has motor disability.

Fernandez and Du received excellence awards in individual contests in eLifemap Challenge and eTool Challenge respectively, while the group won the Excellence Award (Silver) in eCreative and the Best Award (Gold) in eContent in team competition.

Fernandez also got the highest individual points accumulated from all contests, making him the 2019 Global IT Leader.

Meanwhile, Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (AGHAM), a non-governmental science advocacy organization based in the Philippines, congratulated the team in a Facebook post for bagging the most number of awards in the competition.

“This success manifests the bright potential of the Filipino youth and the differently-abled kids, given enough support,” AGHAM said.

This year, the GITC served as an associate event of the ASEAN-Republic of Korea (ROK) to celebrate its 30th anniversary.