The founder of Edukasyon.ph has been working tirelessly towards improving the academic environment in the Philippines. He talks to Generation T about his drive to effect change
“I believe every student should be empowered to make a choice that is most relevant to them—which is where I hope Edukasyon.ph makes an impact,” says Generation T honouree Henry Motte-Muñoz, the CEO and founder of the online platform, which helps students make more informed decisions about their college options.
Entering further education in the Philippines can be intimidating. Trying to navigate the application processes is a daunting task—and finance and accessibility issues can cause headaches. Organisation, planning and guidance are needed, which is where Motte-Muñoz’s three-year-old social enterprise fits in. “Our goal is to improve access to higher education,” he says, “and help students make better informed choices that will allow them to achieve their dream career.”
Motte-Muñoz studied at the London School of Economics and was later granted a company scholarship to Harvard Business School. The Filipino-French entrepreneur, a former Goldman Sachs analyst, has studied and worked in Paris, London and Zurich, but his heart remained in the Philippines. There, the education champion was struck by the plight of young learners struggling to gain access to schools and colleges.
Motte-Muñoz launched Edukasyon—and anti-corruption platform Bantay.ph—while still at Harvard to empower those students and arm them with the necessary tools to navigate the system, by allowing them to search more than 13,000 schools, 20,000 courses and 150 careers available to them in the Philippines. Edukasyon also offers advice, through blogs and expert content, on which courses to choose, and it makes it easier to apply to more than 250 local colleges and 100 colleges overseas. Motte-Muñoz tells us why access to education in the Philippines needs to improve, and what his firm is doing about it now.