Pasig City prepares P1.2B for educational tablets, laptops

The Pasig City Council has approved a P1.2 billion budget for the procurement of tablet computers for students and laptops for teachers in the coming school year when face-to-face classes may be ruled out.

In a social media post, Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto said he has coordinated with the Department of Education (DepEd) on the possible resumption of classes that may be conducted by traditional or via virtual or online learning.

Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo, who chairs the House committee on basic education and culture, said the local government will allocate P1 billion to finance the project, based on the estimated number of students of 140,0000 in Pasig.

Around 138,000 elementary and high school students will be given the gadget from funds sourced from the local government’s special education fund.

According to Vice Mayor Christian Caruncho-Bernardo, this includes students from day care, grade school and special education (SPED) program of the local government.

In a separate interview, City Councilor Corazon Raymundo, chairman of committee on education, said the local government prepares for the upcoming school year by coordinating with the city’s DepEd division.

According to her, the tablets likely cost P6,000 or P7,000 for each of the city’s 75,019 elementary students, junior high schoolers of another 49,100 and senior high schoolers numbering 10,820.