Wanted in ‘last-mile’ schools: Going online

MANILA, Philippines — With classes scheduled to open on Aug. 24, one public elementary school on Siargao Island may not be ready for it as it only has a single laptop it received from the Department of Education (DepEd) in 2018.

“It’s very sad,” said Mariphyl Oliva, the principal of Lasala Elementary School in Siargao, an island in Surigao del Norte province, which is better known as a top surfing destination in the country.

Lasala is one of 9,225 “last-mile” schools, or those in far-flung and isolated areas that are hoping to acquire laptops and internet access for their students under the DepEd’s Public Education Network program.

Lasala’s elementary school has 273 incoming pupils while its high school has 180.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the increased demand for online learning, Oliva has been waiting for procurement of laptops and other gadgets from the DepEd.

Under the program, far-flung schools are top priority in getting internet access and electricity or solar panels, Education Undersecretary Alain del Pascua said.

“The direction is to bring internet connection and laptops to all last-mile schools. We have already mapped them out. Out of the 9,000 last-mile schools, at least 3,000 have no electricity and we plan to give them electricity,” Del Pascua said.

The DepEd has allocated P700 million for the program to increase connectivity in at least 5,000 to 7,000 schools. Procurement is still ongoing, he said.

The DepEd had requested about P4.467 billion but Del Pascua said there had been no procurement since February due to the pandemic.

Lasala only has a Coby laptop from the DepEd but has no internet connection except for Smart’s poor mobile data connectivity.

Its five elementary teachers have their own laptops, bought with borrowed money.

One of them is Vilmalyn Durero, 38, who has been teaching for 11 years. She has been using the laptop of her husband, a barangay councilor, and is now planning to borrow money to buy her own laptop.

“Especially this season of pandemic, it’s really needed. It’s compulsory to teachers—those in remote areas,” Durero said.

She said laptops were essential even before the start of classes as teachers were required to join webinars via Zoom.

Teachers like her rely on the P300 weekly subsidy, which she uses to avail herself of the unlimited Smart internet for P110. The signal, she said, was not that strong but enough for her to be able to listen to the webinar.

Bond paper has been provided for printing before classes begin and a monthly money allocation will soon be provided for the printing of modules, Durero said.

Oliva has been going to school every day to print the modules.

She said the students would have to rely on printed manuals delivered right to their homes by their teachers.

Oliva would have to take a tugboat to deliver the modules to some of her students who live on the islets of Liaunan and Sugba in Barangay Caub when the class starts on Aug. 24.

Durero noted that several areas on the island had no signal.