DepEd begins distribution of 172,000 MacBooks to public school teachers

Make this your preferred source to get more updates from this publisher on Google.

The Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday began its distribution of over 231,725 units of laptops, including 172,000 units of Apple's MacBook Neo, to public school teachers, with initial units being rolled out in Dagupan City.

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and Education Secretary Sonny Angara were present during the ceremonial turnover of the laptops at the Dagupan City National High School.

Under the DepEd Computerization Program, 10 schools in Dagupan City received 209 Apple MacBook Neo laptops.

DepEd said of the 231,725 laptops awarded so far, 169,008 are MacBook Neo units and 62,717 are Windows- based laptops. There are also an additional 3,646 MacBook Neo devices for administrative officers.

During his speech, Angara said the distributed laptops would help ease the workload of teachers.

"Sa ilalim ng administrasyon ni Pangulong Bongbong Marcos, gusto nating ibigay sa ating mga guro ang pinakamahusay na tools at tamang training para mapadali ang paggawa nila ng lesson plans o reports at mas makapag-focus sila sa pagtuturo," Angara said.

(Under the Marcos administration, we want to provide teachers with the best tools and the right training to ease their work in making lesson plans or reports and so that they could focus more on teaching.)

"Kapag namuhunan tayo sa ating mga guro at ibinigay ang pinakamaganda, mas naibibigay rin nila ang buong puso nila para sa kinabukasan ng ating mga kabataan," he added.

(When we invest in our teachers and give them the best equipment, they too would also give their best for the future of our youth.)

Dagupan City National High School received 72 MacBook Neo units, while nine other public elementary, integrated, and secondary schools in the city received the remaining 137 units.

According to DepEd, Dagupan City National High School previously had four official laptops available for its teachers while housing around 5,000 students.

DepEd earlier announced that it has secured over 172,000 units of Apple's MacBook Neo laptops for Filipino teachers and staff, a landmark procurement which the global tech giant reportedly acknowledged as its "biggest education deal ever" for its MacBook line.

Each MacBook Neo unit was procured at P43,000, which is P6,900 below the current suggested retail price in the Philippines for the base model. DepEd said this included a five-year warranty, which is a first for the agency's laptop procurement, instead of the typical one-year warranty. —AOL, GMA News