Granting internet allowance to public school teachers in cash requires P18 billion in public funds, the Department of Education (DepEd) on Wednesday, Nov. 3, said.
In a statement, DepEd said that it has “proactively requested” the Commission on Audit (COA) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) in 2020 for the possibility of granting internet allowance in cash to public school teachers which will require almost P18 billion.
Teachers’ groups such as the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) have been demanding for P1,500 monthly internet allowance to supplement their resources amid continued implementation of blended learning due to lack of face-to-face classes since School Year (SY) 2021-2022.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2021/11/03/groups-laments-expired-deped-349-plan-renews-call-for-p1500-monthly-internet-allowance/
However, DepEd said under its current budget, there is “no existing legal basis and fund cover” for such monthly internet or connectivity allowance.
Per Commission on Audit (COA) Circular No. 2013-003, DepEd noted that “all payments without legal basis will be disallowed in audit” by the Commission.
Despite this, DepEd said that it will continue to work with involved agencies and stakeholders to ensure that public school teachers are “afforded with such support moving forward.”
Meanwhile, DepEd reiterated its commitment to provide connectivity assistance to public school teachers under blended learning setup.
On the connectivity load program for teachers, DepEd said that it is continuously providing connectivity assistance to public school teachers in their blended learning setup for this SY 2021-2022.
“Under the DepEd SIM Card and Connectivity Load Program, we have provided our teachers with SIM cards with 34GB connectivity load per month,” DepEd said.
Citing data from its analytics consumption tests, the 1GB per day for 30 days is “enough to access e-learning, and whitelisted or zero-rated DepEd applications.”
This, DepEd said, can also support eight (8) hours of video conferencing.
Additionally, DepEd advised DepEd SIM Card recipients who are having any concerns or issues to report report these by through #33733 (#DEPED) or via email at [email protected]