Starting next month, teachers administering blended learning may start receiving connectivity load allowance sufficient for three months, the Department of Education (DepEd) said on Friday.
“With or without the pandemic, the department has actively advocated for policies and programs that will further support our teachers. Through this connectivity allowance, we hope to continuously assist our teachers in their duties to deliver quality education to our learners amid the situation,” Education Chief Leonor Magtolis Briones said.
During the EduAKSYON news conference in Region 11, Undersecretary for Administration Alain del Pascua said the department has started the procurement process of the connectivity load that will provide public-school teachers with 30 to 35 GB data allocation per month.
“We will begin to roll out siguro [perhaps] next month. We will be asking our teachers to register in DepEd Commons para mabigyan sila ng load sa kani-kanilang [so we could send the load through their] cell phones,” he added.
Pascua noted 35 GB per month is adequate for the teachers’ online teaching activities as the 1 GB bandwidth a day can be used for eight hours of online webinars, downloading, video streaming, among others.
In addition, the unused data allocation will be rolled over to the following months up to one year until the user fully consumes the 100 GB allocation.
However, when asked by education reporters, DepEd officials did not answer if how much is the equivalent of the connectivity load per month or this will be the replacement of the previous proposal to provide teachers with P450 per month and senior high-school students with P250.
The DepEd also received a proposal to give teachers SIM cards that could utilize the data connection for school works.
Furthermore, Pascua also updated everyone on the ongoing programs of DepEd that would help establish President Duterte’s envisioned Public Education Network (PEN), which aims to connect all schools and DepEd offices nationwide and enable school officials and teachers to push content without Internet.
“We are also procuring laptops with DBM-PS [Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service] to give to our teachers, including walkie talkies, for areas with no cell-phone signal,” the DepEd official added.
Through its partnership with the Department of Information and Communications Technology and Converge ICT Solutions Inc., DepEd has also started acquiring satellite connectivity for the Last Mile schools or those in far-flung places.
These efforts are spearheaded by the Information and Communications Technology Service headed by Director Abram Y.C. Abanil, under the Administration Strand led by Undersecretary Pascua and Assistant Secretary Salvador Malana III.
It is part of the Public Schools of the Future Framework of the Administration Strand under the leadership of Briones.
Image credits: DepEd.gov.ph