Robbers target students with tablets

MANILA, Philippines - Students at a Marikina City private school, which advocates the use of tablets instead of textbooks, have become favorite targets of robbers, a school official said yesterday.

Eleazardo Kasilag, administrator of St. Nicholas School in Twinville Subdivision, Concepcion Dos, is seeking the help of the Marikina police to stop criminals from victimizing students and teachers before the problem gets out of hand.

Like some schools in Metro Manila, particularly in Makati City, the school adopted tablet education because it fosters a “more interactive and encouraging classroom scenario,” Kasilag said, adding that tablets spared students the burden of carrying heavy textbooks.

As the first school in Marikina to use tablets for education, it also attracted the attention of robbers. Kasilag said “stalkers” are following students – all of whom, from pre-school to high school, are equipped with tablets – in the subdivision.

He admitted that only the local police could remedy the situation. “We cannot go back to the traditional books just to avoid these ‘trailers’ but I tell you they were always around in our two campuses and it seems the police are helpless,” Kasilag said.      

The latest incident was when an eighth grader lost his bag containing a Dell laptop and a tablet to three men riding a motorcycle. The student and a classmate were walking to school when the motorcycle-riding men bumped them and grabbed the victim’s bag.

The students failed to take note of the motorcycle’s plate number. The three men all wore helmets, which hid their faces.

According to Kasilag, Jescelyn Cantillo, a science adviser to fourth year high school students, also lost her tablet to motorcycle-riding robbers last week. Cantillo was shocked and speechless for several hours as it was her first encounter with criminals, he added.

The student who lost his laptop and tablet now has to resort to taking notes with a pen and notebook to catch up with his lessons. Cantillo bought a new laptop to upload lesson modules.

Kasilag advised students not to display their tablets in public so they would not become the robbers’ next target.