Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes leads the turnover of tablets and laptops to the DepEd-Mandaue City Division. The 5,000 tablets are to be distributed to the city’s Senior High School students for free. CDN Digital photo | Mary Rose Sagarino
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — Mandaue City became the first local government unit (LGU) in Central Visayas to provide free tablets to its senior high school students.
According to Dr. Salustiano Jiminez, Regional Director of the Department of Education (DepEd) 7, Mandaue City is currently the only LGU in Central Visayas to provide tablets to Senior High School students.
“This is the first in Central Visayas, mao nang imbes naa ko ron sa San Remigio diri gyud ko, gabie, naabot ko midnight na aron lang gyud ko makaari diri, I want to witness for myself the first ever in Central Visayas the turn over of gadgets like this for our learners,”
Jiminez also thanked Mandaue City for caring about the children’s education.
The city government led by Mayor Jonas Cortes turned over 5,000 multi touch screen tablets to the DepEd-Mandaue division to be given for free to Senior High School students in the city’s public schools.
Cortes said his administration is committed to providing quality education to its students despite the pandemic.
“We need to give the best education sa ato’ng mga kabataan because they deserved the best kay mao ni ato’ng kaugmaon, we need to give quality education even in the middle of the pandemic, kinahanglan ni nga gadget panahon sa pandemic,” Cortes said.
Shzan Moises Rei Espra, an SHS student is thankful to the government for the much-needed support.
“I am very grateful for this event, nga giving of tablets this is really a great help especially sa situation right now,” said Espra.
Lawyer John Eddu Ibañez said that recipient students cannot give or sell the gadgets to others as ownership cannot be transferred. Also, the students must return the tablets at the end of the school year.
Meanwhile, the 15,000 tablets for lower years and 623 laptops for teachers are expected to be delivered soon.
Apart from the gadgets, Mandaue City is also coordinating with a service provider to provide free wifi to be used by the barangays.
The DepEd-Mandaue division recorded a total of 68, 977 students enrolled in all public schools, 5,104 of which are public senior high school students./rcg