Kanino napunta? Group claims laptops from DepEd ain’t going to teachers

By Billy Begas

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Sunday said that most of the laptops purchased by the Department of Education (DepEd) were not distributed to public school teachers.

ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio made the statement following the claim of DepEd Undersecretary Alain Pascua that a total of 353,359 laptops procured under the 2019 national budget and Bayanihan 2 were provided to teachers.

Basilio said that if Pascua’s claim is true, about 34% of public school teachers should by now be using DepEd-issued laptops “but that is far from the truth.”

“So we ask DepEd, in the spirit of transparency, where are these laptops and are they serving the purpose of aiding teachers in distance learning? We’re afraid that without such honest accounting, we won’t be able to truly determine how much more laptops should be budgeted,” Basilio said.

A survey conducted by ACT showed that only 7% of teachers from the National Capital Region (NCR) and 14% from other regions will be using DepEd-issued laptops for school year 2021–2022. The survey was conducted from August 23–31, 2021.

ACT said that the supposedly 211,000 laptops purchased in 2019 were not reflected in the 2019 budget of DepEd. The group said that Pascua was possibly referring to the total number of laptops from years back up to 2019 “many of which are no longer serviceable or had specs that does not meet the requirements of distance learning.”

The remaining “relatively new and more serviceable” laptops from 2020–present only accounts for 142,359 units, leaving 693,585 teachers still without a DepEd-issued laptop.

Basilio said not all the 142,359 laptops were given to teachers and went to officers rather than to classroom teachers.

“As such, Usec. Pascua’s claims on their laptop provision for about 42% of teachers now becomes suspect at best, an outright lie at worst,” Basilio added.

Basilio said Pascua even gave a “bloated” P33 billion budget needed to give laptops to all public school teachers since the agency is only buying units that costs around P25,000.

“Therefore, to cover DepEd’s actual backlog of 693,585 teachers, it only needs Php17.4-B—nearly half of what DepEd claimed it needed,” Basilio pointed out.

Basilio urged lawmakers to look into DepEd’s computation as they tackle DepEd’s 2022 budget.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)