Some teachers reportedly “rejected” or “returned” the laptops issued by the Department of Education (DepEd) under the P2.4-billion controversial deal after finding out that these are way below the specifications needed for them to fulfill their tasks.
The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC), in a statement issued Thursday, Sept. 29, said that they have received reports from teacher-recipients who refused to use or returned the laptops issued by DepEd due to their low specifications.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/08/10/deped-on-resolving-the-p2-4-b-laptop-issue-we-are-doing-everything-that-we-can/
As the Senate hearing on DepEd’s “overpriced” laptops resumed on Thursday, TDC claimed that recipients of these controversial units concluded that the “units are not fit for the demands” of teachers’ work --- as these are “outdated.”
TDC National Chairperson Benjo Basas noted that “some teachers rejected it when they read the specifications” on the property acknowledgment receipt (PAR).
Others, he said, “returned the units to their property custodians when they found out that these laptops performed terribly.”
“And there are also those who did not use the laptops and just bought new ones with their own money,” he added.
Revolting, incomprehensible, perplexing
Meanwhile, For TDC, it is “revolting that such controversies” such as the DepEd laptop mess arise at a time when the country is still amid a pandemic.
“It is incomprehensible that government funds of such size should end up buying overpriced and outdated laptops that would only make terrible paperweights,” Basas said.
TDC said that “irregularities” such as this would leave teachers–yet once again–to “absorb the painful impact of this irresponsible handling of taxpayers’ money.”
Under the controversial deal, laptops for teacher-recipients were bought at P58,000 each. However, a Commission on Audit (COA) report cited that the said laptops were “pricey yet outdated.”
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/08/05/price-of-laptops-stated-in-coa-report-best-answered-by-ps-dbm-says-deped/
Meanwhile, Basas said that many teachers continue to make “painful sacrifices” to find ways to purchase essential laptops --- typically by “borrowing money at usurious interest rates they will have to bear for several years.”
Basas explained that laptops and internet connection are “now an absolute necessity in teaching if we are to catch up” with the rest of the world.
“In this day and age, the laptop and the internet are the definitive tools of the trade,” he said. However, Basas said that many teachers are “forced to reach deep into their pockets” to be able to purchase laptops and do their jobs of building young lives.
This, he added, makes this “scandalous purchase” of ₱2.4 billion “all the more abhorrent.”
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/08/06/purchase-of-overpriced-outdated-laptops-sad-and-revolting-teachers/
As the group commended the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee for its “swift action to investigate the questionable transaction,”
TDC also expressed hope that lawmakers would recommend the “filing of necessary charges against anyone involved should irregularities be found.”
Teachers, Basas said, are also carefully monitoring the developments in this “perplexing situation” and expect that the guilty parties to be “put to justice.”
RELATED STORY:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/08/17/vp-secretary-sara-requests-for-fraud-audit-of-the-p2-4-b-laptop-deal/