Eyebrows went up when the Department of Education announced it was buying more than 170,000 MacBooks for public school teachers and staff for about P7.4 billion. To some Filipinos, it looked like a luxury.
It might have been an easier purchase to welcome if the government had already been meeting schools’ most basic needs, like classrooms and textbooks.
Teachers and students do need laptops. A reliable laptop can save teachers hours preparing lessons and give them access to videos, interactive exercises, and other materials they can bring into class. It gives students a way to go beyond the textbook, too. A lesson can lead to a question, and that question can lead to a bit of research.
That was part of the case for equipping teachers during the pandemic. As House Speaker, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano co-authored the House bill that helped become Bayanihan 2, which provided funding for distance learning, including laptops for teachers — a need that is still very much there. When a typhoon forces schools to suspend in-person classes, a laptop gives teachers a way to send out lessons and keep in touch with students who can connect from home.
But what good are P7.4 billion worth of laptops when children are still packed into overcrowded classrooms? How much can a well-researched PowerPoint lesson do when students have less time with their teachers because classes run in shifts? And what good is the technology when children come to school hungry or are already dealing with the effects of chronic malnutrition?
Yes, public schools should modernize. But they also need the basics that make good teaching and learning possible in the first place.
Cayetano has put forward a straightforward choice. Either fully fund K to 12 however much it takes to give students the education the program was meant to deliver, or if the government truly can’t afford it, scale back to K to 10. He argues that dropping two years could free up classrooms, reduce the number of students per room, and make more funds available for textbooks, school nutrition, and modern facilities.
Spending billions on MacBooks is worthwhile if it makes teaching easier and more effective. But as long as schools lack the basics, the hi-tech laptops may offer teachers some welcome relief while students continue to face the same barriers to learning this year and beyond.###