A consumer advocacy group called on the government, telecommunications companies and educational institutions to synchronize digital infrastructure expansion with education reforms, saying the country's economic growth depends on equipping students for a digital economy.

CitizenWatch Philippines said the country’s recent reclassification as an upper-middle-income country presents an opportunity to ensure that investments in connectivity are matched by strong support for digital education and workforce readiness.

The World Bank reclassified the Philippines as an upper-middle-income country on 1 July, following an increase in its gross national income per capita to $4,850 in 2025. That figure surpassed the threshold of $4,636.

The World Bank attributed the milestone to broad-based economic expansion, with the country’s gross domestic product growing by an average of 5.8 percent annually over the past five years.

CitizenWatch co-convenor Kit Belmonte described the new income classification as a significant milestone after decades of slow economic progress. However, he said it underscores the need for the education sector to keep pace with the rapid transformation of the digital economy.

"Government and industry have moved with real intent on infrastructure — fiber, 5G, data centers, AI-ready networks," Belmonte said. "The opportunity now is to bring education reform into that same rhythm, so the investment in connectivity and the investment in learning are advancing together rather than on separate timelines."

Belmonte noted that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. recently recognized Globe Telecom’s launch of Starlink direct-to-cell service and its continuing network expansion. Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda said those initiatives are moving the country closer to near-universal internet access.

Belmonte said the government’s existing policy framework already supports greater integration of technology into education. He cited the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 and the 2026-2028 Strategic Investment Priority Plan, which classifies digital education projects as a priority area eligible for incentives.

Artificial intelligence represents one of the strongest opportunities to modernize Philippine education because it can be integrated directly into classroom instruction rather than being taught solely as a standalone subject, according to Belmonte.

"AI-powered personalized learning, adaptive assessments, and intelligent tutoring systems are not future concepts — they are tools that can be deployed now to help teachers reach students at different paces and levels," Belmonte said. "What we need is to accelerate implementation so that AI becomes part of daily instruction."

Belmonte stressed that realizing these goals will require stronger collaboration among government agencies, educational institutions, local government units and the private technology sector. He listed expanding teacher training, providing more digital devices to public schools and updating school curriculums as immediate priorities.

He also pointed to persistent bottlenecks in delivering "last-mile" internet connectivity to remote schools and villages, citing local permitting requirements and coordination issues between national and local agencies as continuing obstacles.

"The upper-middle-income country classification took more than a generation to achieve — a hard lesson of fragmented growth and governance that digital technologies can now help to solve," Belmonte said.