Education Secretary Sonny Angara led the nationwide rollout of DepEd’s Project LIGTAS+, or Learning Institution Geohazard Tracking and Assessment for Safety, a platform designed to help schools prepare for and respond to disasters while minimizing disruptions to learning.
The system combines artificial intelligence, satellite imagery, geospatial analytics, and school-level risk data to provide education leaders with real-time, actionable information on hazards. Angara emphasized the need to move from simply relying on resilience to proactive disaster preparedness, noting that natural hazards cause schools to lose an average of 40 to 50 instructional days each year.
Developed by DepEd’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Service and the Education Center for AI Research, LIGTAS+ can significantly speed up emergency response by reducing situation report preparation from hours to about five minutes while monitoring rainfall, extreme heat, wind speeds, and temperature changes. The platform will also help identify geohazard risks, guide disaster-resilient school construction, and support the prepositioning of emergency learning packages such as Edukahon in high-risk communities.
The nationwide rollout was marked by a commitment signing between DepEd and partner agencies, including the Department of Science and Technology, PAGASA, PHIVOLCS, and the UP Resilience Institute. Policy issuances and capacity-building initiatives are also being developed to support the rapid adoption of Project LIGTAS+ across public schools nationwide.
