Manila sets P994 million for tablets, laptops

MANILA, Philippines — The Manila City government will buy 110,000 tablet devices equipped with SIM cards and 11,000 laptops with pocket WiFi devices worth P994 million for students and teachers in preparation for upcoming online classes.

Mayor Isko Moreno announced this on Friday evening after convening the Local School Board of the city in preparation for this school year’s online classes.

Moreno told members of the board he doesn’t want kids going to schools that are not properly equipped.

“We are the capital of the nation… I want you to focus all your effort on this,” he said.

He said that each educational tablet device will be equipped with SIM cards with 10 GB bandwidth monthly as well as free 2GB data allocation for YouTube.

“I want to focus on the real problem that they need bandwidth,” he said.

Likewise, Domagoso said that 11,000 laptops with pocket WiFi devices would be issued to public school teachers for the online classes.

Domagoso said these devices would be distributed prior to the opening of school year 2020-2021.

In response, the Manila Public School Teachers Association (MPSTA) lauded the mayor’s decision to provide free educational gadgets for both teachers and students.

Louie Zabala, a board member of MPSTA, said the move by the mayor gives hope that the children of Manila can continue their studies amid the pandemic crisis.