The San Juan City government turned over on Thursday the free laptops, tablet computers, and pocket WiFi devices to be used by the city’s public school students under the blending learning system this school year.
Mayor Francis Zamora said the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) has provided San Juan with 12,500 tablet computers, 1,000 laptops, and 1,000 pocket WiFis.
Zamora said students from Grades 3 to 6 of Pinaglabanan Elementary School will receive laptops and pocket WiFis as part of the DICT’s Digital Learning project.
All elementary and high school students from other public schools in San Juan will receive one tablet computer each.
“San Juan has spent nothing for the project. All of the gadgets were provided to us by the DICT,” the mayor said in his speech.
Zamora and DICT Secretary Gringo Honasan led the ceremonial turnover of the "e-learning package” to parent and teacher-representatives at the City Hall.
In July, 2019, the local government forged a partnership with the DICT to transform San Juan into a “smart city” through its “Free WiFi for All Program” and other digitalization programs.
Under the agreement, the DICT will also provide the local government with learning gadgets such as tablet computers, laptops, and pocket WiFi to be distributed to public school students and teachers in the city.
According to the local government, all 375 public school teachers in San Juan were already provided with laptops last January.
“We are very fortunate to have forged a partnership with the DICT. These programs will truly benefit the San Juaneños especially during this pandemic,”Zamora said.
“Though it never occurred to me then in 2019 that digital learning will be implemented nationwide in 2020 because of the threat of COVID-19, San Juan City public school students are very lucky to have the DICT providing their needs for online schooling,” he added.