Remember those alarming reports last month on students allegedly holding a “Christmas sale” of sensual photos and videos to raise funds and buy gadgets for online learning?
With the recent donations turned over to the Department of Education (DepEd), students who are in dire need of learning gadgets will be receiving gadgets that they can use under the distance learning set-up.
In less than a week, DepEd received over 7,000 learning gadgets to be distributed to students in public schools who might be struggling due to the challenges in distance or blended learning brought about by the ongoing COVID-19 situation in the country.
On Tuesday, Feb. 2, the Chinese Embassy in Manila donated 2,000 Huawei tablets to DepEd as a “form of support to the Filipino learners” in the current blended mode of learning during the pandemic.
The turnover ceremony was personally attended in Malacañang by the DepEd Secretary Leonor Magtolis-Briones, Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian, Presidential Assistant on Foreign Affairs and Chief of Presidential Protocol Robert Eric Borje and DepEd Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan.
DepEd said that the tablets are “set to be distributed to remote schools and other school community areas in dire need of learning gadgets and assistance.”
On Friday, Jan. 29, DepEd also accepted e-learning gadget donations from the Bureau of Customs (BOC) during the turnover ceremony at South Harbor, Port Area.
The BOC donated a total 5,038 learning gadgets to DepEd as part of the whole-of-government approach in assisting learners. The donation consisted of 198 pieces of laptops with specifications of 256 gigabytes (GB) to 1 terabyte (TB), and 4,840 total number of smartphones with 4GB to 8GB RAM and 128GB maximum storage - which will be donated to public schools.
Briones noted that initiatives such as these are vital in the DepEd’s goal to “improve digital education and reduce the dependency on the printed self-learning modules.”