Buying laptops for every teacher will not be possible according to Chairman of the Senate Committee that deals with education. The proposal to buy 800,000 laptops for every teacher had been submitted by the Department of Education.
Public schools in the Philippines are expected to reopen on August 24th, after months of shutdown as a result of the spread of coronavirus. The government has already announced that learning will not be face to face unless a vaccine is found.
Therefore, schools have turned to online learning, with teachers and students agreeing this is the easiest mode of teaching available. However, there is one problem for both the teachers and the students, lack of access to resources they can use to access the learning platforms.
Buying laptops for every teacher rejected
Realizing this, the Department of Education submitted a proposal to the Basic Education, Culture and Arts Senate Committee on how they intend to solve this problem. in the proposal, they said that, for teachers to be able to effectively continue with their teaching, they needed to have laptops. Therefore, the government was required to buy laptops for every teacher in the country.
The department called on the Senate Committee to consider buying 800,000 laptops for every teacher, to ensure that education is able to continue smoothly when the schools finally resume in August.
The call of buying laptops for every teacher, however, was met with opposition from the chairman of the Basic Education, Culture and Arts, Sherwin “Win” Ting Gatchalian. He said the proposal was impossible to implement, based on the current budget allocations and tough economic times.
Alternative solutions
He noted that the budget allocation for the Department of Education is the largest in the country, with hundreds of school staff on the payroll of the government. He continued by saying the best solution for the current problem would not be buying laptops for every teacher in the country. The best solution would be to improve connectivity across the country.
He said that if internet connectivity is improved, teachers and students would be able to access the services easily wherever they are, using alternative forms of devices such as smartphones. He also said usage of Wi-Fi to ensure students and teachers stay connected.
Featured image by Pixabay
