BCNHS, BCS join DepEd's Automated Election System testing

Baguio City National High School (BCNHS) and Baguio Central School (BCS) joined the Department of Education (DepEd) in the pilot testing of the Automated Election System during the Synchronized Supreme Student Government (SSG) and Supreme Pupil Government (SPG), February 14.

According to Josef Eric Oliveros, Technical Support Officer from DepEd- Baguio City’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Services, the nationwide election system aims to replace manual counting with an automated one that resembles the procedures in a National Election.

“DepEd implemented a system regarding the Automated SPG and SSG Elections. So, what the central office wants to develop is an automated election just like the one used in National Elections, replacing the manual counting,” Oliveros explained in an interview.

Oliveros also emphasized that despite the technical difficulties faced during the election, overall, the system was okay because even elementary students were able to use the system efficiently.

“Overall, I think the system was okay because it was easy to use even for the elementary students,” Oliveros said.

Glitches in the system

However, the automated elections both in BCNHS and BCS encountered technical difficulties.

According to Imelda Bantas, SSG Adviser and ICT Coordinator of BCNHS, only the grade eleven students participated because of the high number of students and time constraints.

“We only included grade eleven students for the pilot testing because it does not seem feasible for more than six thousand students here in City high. And the roll out was just on Monday, then we must feed all the information to the system. It was a very short time,” Bantas said in an interview.

She added that they also encountered difficulty in uploading voters’ information in bulk as the system expires every 60 seconds.

“The only problem was in the uploading of information, since our information here is in bulk. The system times out every 60 seconds. Imagine if we are going to upload 6,000 plus information, then you wait every one minute. It will take forever,” Bantas said in an interview.

Ivy Ann Andres, SPG Adviser and ICT Coordinator of BCS, also encountered the same problem with the expiration of the page and added that even the setup of the system took a lot of time.

“We only have slight issues. When the students click, after the third click, the page expires immediately. So, the students need to restart again. And even in setting up, it took us two days just to set up,” Andres explained.

In addition, Oliveros expressed his hopes for it to become purely offline because there are some schools that do not have strong internet connection.

“During the election, the units, server and the clients, should be connected to the internet. That’s one of the issues. I hope that it becomes purely offline because there are schools which do not have strong internet connections. There are remote schools. That will be their problem,” Oliveros added.

Oliveros also pointed out that security of the system is loose as “techie students” or students who are good in technology can hack it.

“We still need to fix the system errors because it is easy to hack. If the student is a techie, he can hack the system and manipulate the data.  We need to secure the system for fairness. So that there will be no claims of cheating,” Oliveros said.

Manual over automated elections for now

According to Bantas and Andres, based on the testing, the manual election is still more efficient than the automated election. However, they also acknowledge that this is just a pilot and there are rooms for improvement.

“In BCNHS, the simultaneous manual elections are already done and tallied already during the first period. The automated election takes more time because we don’t have enough units. Of course, we must consider the fact that this is a pilot, first time. So, we have a lot of adjustments to do. I understand why in elections, there are many issues like these,” Bantas clarified.

“As of the moment, manual election is more efficient,” Andres also added.

Oliveros clarified that these feedbacks are normal but believes that in time, people will also see the benefits of the automated election.

“Of course, it’s just a pilot. Everyone is still adjusting. But in time, they will see the benefits of an automated election. That the results come out immediately. For now, the reason why we did the pilot is because next year, we want to fully implement it. After we see all the problems,” Oliveros explained.

He also reassured that the issues encountered by the testing areas will be reported to the Central Office.

“The central office wants to know the feedback of the schools that experienced some issues. I hope that next year, it will be improved, because [the system] is okay,” Oliveros said.

Importance of Student Elections

The SPG and SSG Coordinators also emphasized the importance of student elections in imbibing values to students and in making them practice participatory governance at such a young age.

“It is a way of practicing participatory governance and that’s what we teach in school so they have the opportunity to choose the best leaders that would handle the next school year’s student leadership,” Bantas explained.

“The students will see the importance of choosing the right candidate. And then also for them to experience how to cast a vote. Honesty itself is also being practiced and their patience is also being tested while falling in line. We do this for them to experience how to vote,” Andres said.

DepEd Undersecretary Alain Del B. Pascua signed Memorandum Number 01-0120-0609 on January 30 that encouraged all schools to use the Automated Election System developed by the Information and Communications Technology Service (ICTS) in partnership with the Youth Formation Division (YFD). The system is a part of the Digital Rise Program of the Department of Education.

By: Valerie Joyce Nuval