Metro Manila, Philippines – The recent purchase of tens of thousands of MacBook Neo laptops is still “grossly insufficient” to address the education workforce needs, much less compensate them properly for the workload, a teacher group said.
The deal with technology giant Apple for 172,654 laptops aimed to address the burden of educators buying their own devices while advancing digital education, but the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines said in a statement on Tuesday, Nov. 3, that the procurement “must not be paraded” as the government’s fulfillment of providing enough laptops to educators.
“With nearly 900,000 public school teachers alone, the latest procurement, even when combined with previously contracted units, will still leave the vast majority of teachers without government-provided laptops,” ACT said.
It also called out the alleged injustice to educators facing low salaries and excessive workloads, on top of providing teaching tools out of their pockets.
“Many have even gone into debt just to buy the laptops they need…” ACT chairperson Ruby Bernardo said. “In effect, our educators are subsidizing the government’s failure to provide even the most basic tools for their work.”
Short in supply
Grade 12 teacher Dindin (not her real name) while she welcomed the new MacBook Neos, the supply was not enough.
“Sa palagay ko, at ng mga co-teachers ko, hindi kami masyadong umaasa (na mabigyan) kasi wala pa ‘yan sa kalahati ng bilang ng mga DepEd employees,” she said.
[Translation: In my opinion and that of my colleagues, we’re not expecting to receive because the number of units cannot even cover half of DepEd employees.]
Of the total 231,725 laptops, teachers will get 169,008 MacBook units and 62,717 Windows-based units, while 3,646 MacBook Neos will be given to school administrators.
Dindin said each school could possibly have only two units given the number of public schools nationwide.
Omel (not his real name), a grade 11 teacher, shared the sentiment, saying the budget for MacBooks could have been spent on lower-priced Windows laptops to double the devices.
The MacBook units cost ₱7 billion with a discount price of ₱43,000 from ₱49,900.
ACT appealed to DepEd for “sustained funding” to make sure each teacher receives a laptop.
“Schools should not be forced to raffle off a handful of devices or its personnel to compete for limited units when these are essential tools for their work,” Bernardo said. “Our demand remains clear, laptops for every teacher and public funds that actually reach schools and education workers.”
Teaching gap
Meanwhile, DepEd will also launch GuroXL in collaboration with Apple to train the educators on technological leadership credentials, as well as Apple Teacher Certifications.
However, there could be a possible disconnect between the learning capacity of students and teachers, as Omel said most students use Windows-based laptops.
“Dahil ang mga bata hindi naman sila gumagamit ng (MacBook),” he said, “So mahihirapan ‘yung mga teachers sa magturo (sa) Windows kung ang gamit nila ay (MacBook).”
[Translation: The children do not use a MacBook. So the teachers would have difficulty on Windows-based learning if they use a MacBook.]
Omel also said that the department has provided lapel microphones, which he uses alternately with his personal mic due to weak volume.
“Teachers were promised laptops but received only lapel microphones,” ACT said.
The group also called out devices from past procurements of DepEd supposedly “languishing in warehouses.”
For its part, the DepEd said the program “isn’t just about handing out world-class hardware with five-year warranties; it’s about giving our educators the best tools, backed by robust training so they can focus on what matters most: teaching our children.”
