A total of 284 disadvantaged students from the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) received free tablets from the city government to equip them for the blended distant learning set-up during the pandemic.
Manila Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso turned over the tablets to PLM President Emmanuel Leyco at the Manila City Hall on Saturday.
The city government and PLM delivered the tablets to selected students on the same day.
In a statement, PLM said enrollees for Academic Year 2020-2021 who reported not having any gadgets and who have the lowest annual family incomes were prioritized in the distribution of the tablets.
“We are thankful to the City of Manila under the leadership of Mayor Isko Moreno for extending aid to poor but deserving PLM students. This will be of great help for them as the University shifted to blended learning amid the COVID-19 threat,” Leyco said in a statement.
Earlier, the city government purchased a total of 137,200 tablets, 11,000 laptops, 11,000 pocket WiFi, and 286,000 sim cards with a 10 GB bandwith-monthly allotment to distribute to students and teachers as face-to-face classes are still prohibited amid COVID-19.
Domagoso also donated 1,010 tablets to poor Unibersidad de Manila students using his modeling and talent fees from various private companies.