The city government of Manila was scheduled to start distributing free gadgets to teachers and students from more than 100 public schools in Manila starting August 26.
Some 11,000 laptops and a pocket WiFi with 10GB of data are reserved for teachers while 136,950 tablets with sim cards holding 10GB of data are reserved for students.
Small tablets will be given to students in Kinder to Grade 3 while big tablets will be given to students from Grade 4 to Grade 12.
The applications needed by the students as well as the modules which will be covered during the school year are already installed in the tablets.
“That’s 10GB. 10GB is more than enough if you just use that in school,” Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko” Domagoso said.
The local government is planning to buy more tablets as the number of enrollees exceeded the number expected by authorities.
Due to this, the initial P1.64 billion budget was increased by up to P150 billion.
The Manila government has conducted the ceremonial turn-over to the Manila Division of City Schools.
A total of 107 public schools, composed of 72 elementary schools and 35 high schools, will receive the gadgets.
The gadgets will remain the property of the local government. They cannot be sold and parents will be held accountable if these go missing.