DepEd: Not all teachers receiving Mac laptops

Education Secretary Sonny Angara clarified that not all teachers will receive laptops under the Department of Education’s (DepEd) latest rollout, as the agency has set criteria for prioritizing recipients.

“We have to establish some kind of prioritization as we have 840,000-plus teachers and we have only a certain number of units, which is just around 231,000,” Angara said at a Palace press briefing.

DepEd acquired each MacBook Neo for approximately P43,000, or P6,900 below its regular price. Apple CEO John Ternus said the deal was the company’s largest contract in the education sector for Mac.

To qualify, teachers must have an active teaching assignment and must not have a working laptop issued by DepEd, another government agency or a local government unit, or received through a formal donation between 1 January 2023 and 6 November 2026.

Previous recipients may still qualify if their laptops have been officially declared unserviceable or were lost or damaged due to a calamity, theft or robbery, subject to proper documentation and validation by the Schools Division Office.

Personally owned laptops and shared school equipment do not disqualify teachers from receiving a unit. However, applicants must have an active DepEd email account with multi-factor authentication enabled before issuance.

Angara said teachers in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas would also qualify, although access to electricity could affect when they receive their devices.

Why Mac?

“If they do not have electricity, they will not be able to charge the computer. They may receive their laptops once their situation changes, as the government is also working on electrification and solarization of some schools,” he said.

Angara described the initiative, under the Laptops for Teachers component of the DepEd Computerization Program, as the most comprehensive laptop distribution project undertaken by the administration.

DepEd has procured 231,725 laptops for the latest rollout, which began in November 2026. This brings the total number of laptops procured for teachers from 2022 to 2026 to 372,155.

Angara said Apple secured a substantial share of the procurement after winning the bidding conducted under government procurement rules. The MacBook Air units were acquired at a discounted price of about P43,000 each.

DepEd also procured laptops from Acer, while previous purchases included HP and Asus models.

Angara said the agency prioritized specifications suited to teachers’ needs, including a five-year warranty, which he described as a first for the department. He said the longer warranty would reduce government spending on repairs and maintenance.