DepEd to provide solar-powered computers to public schools with no electricity

“The innovation in this effort is that the computer package includes a solar panel that will support the provision of electrical energy. We hope that these computers will help improve their teaching and learning activities despite their remote location,” Education Undersecretary Alain del Pascua said in a news release issued Monday. (Photo: minoru karamatsu/ Facebook)

MANILA –The Department of Education (DepEd) is set to distribute computer packages and solar panels to about 6,000 elementary and secondary public schools in areas without electricity.

“The innovation in this effort is that the computer package includes a solar panel that will support the provision of electrical energy. We hope that these computers will help improve their teaching and learning activities despite their remote location,” Education Undersecretary Alain del Pascua said in a news release issued Monday.

The computer package includes one laptop and a 7-in-1 tablet.

“This is the government’s initiative to promote tech-savviness in rural barangays and let them cope with the technological advancement of their counterparts in the urban area,” Pascua added.

According to the department, 4,000 of the beneficiary public schools will be from Luzon and Mindanao, and the remaining 2,000 from the Visayas.

With a PHP1.4 billion funding under the DepEd 2015 Computerization Program (DCP), the procurement is underway through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the budget department’s procurement service.

Under the computerization program, the government has allotted PHP6 billion under the 2017 General Appropriations Act (GAA) to procure about 188,000 computers for public elementary and secondary schools nationwide.

The DCP is in response to the computer backlog in public schools, where DepEd will provide hardware and software packages, including training on simple troubleshooting.

The program aims to provide computer laboratory packages to public secondary schools, including Senior High Schools (SHS), and e-classrooms to elementary schools; laptop units to mobile teachers; and integration of ICT in the classroom system while raising the literacy of learners on new technology.