The free laptops, tablets, pocket wifi, and sim cards for use by teachers and students enrolled in different public schools in Manila have been turned over to the Division of City Schools (DCS) Monday.

Manila Mayor Francisco ‘Isko Moreno’ Domagoso and DCS-Manila Superintendent Maria Magdalena Lim lead the ceremonial turn-over of the gadgets.

“So far we’re on time, on track, hopefully by October 5 okay na lahat (everything is okay),” Domagoso said in an interview.

A total of 110,700 pieces of Cherry Mobile tablets, 286,000 pieces of Globe sim cards, 11,000 pieces of Avita laptops, and 11,000 pieces of pocket wifi have been delivered to the DCS Manila, according to the acknowledgment receipt signed by Domagoso and Lim.

The laptops and the pocket wifi are for the use of teachers. Students from kinder to Grade 12 will use the tablets with sim cards.
Both come with an internet load of 10 gigabytes of monthly bandwidth, enough if it would be used strictly for online study, Domagoso said.

The cost to purchase the gadgets amounts to a total of PHP1.64 billion.

“Originally PHP900 million, nagdagdag pa tayo ng over PHP100 million, maraming lumipat from private to public (we allocated over PHP100 million more because of many students transferred from private to public schools),” Domagoso said.

The Department of Education has noted an increase in the number of students transferring from private to public schools as a result of the economic difficulties at this time of the pandemic. The DCS-Manila recorded about 25,000 transferees in the city.

The distribution of the devices to parents and students will begin on August 26. (PNA)