PLDT and Smart through their social outreach arm, PLDT-Smart Foundation (PSF), together with their partners Huawei Philippines and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) bring inclusive and equitable quality education to the island municipality of Tingloy in the province of Batangas. In support of the DICT’s launch of the Smart Village, Smart Island program, PSF and Huawei Philippines donated two School-in-a-Bag (SIAB) packages to Tingloy Central School and Tingloy Senior High School to expand their lesson delivery platforms.
“PLDT and Smart through PSF heed the call of geographically isolated communities to help them reach students in remote hinterlands whose every-day journey to schools is a challenge. With the dedication of our teachers, and support of our partners, the School-in-a-Bag can help narrow learning gaps in far-flung areas,” said Esther O. Santos, President of PSF.
“Huawei Philippines continues to support efforts to improve learning outcomes among Filipino students. The School-in-a-Bag highlights technology for good where digital innovations help bring quality education to last-mile schools,” said Karrie Buenafe, Senior Public Relations Manager, Huawei Philippines.
There are 18 schools on the island municipality, though the number of enrollees is relatively small. Of these, only two offer senior high school programs. Some of the schools are not easily accessible, often requiring students and teachers to walk for miles.
“The School-in-a-Bag offers a unique interactive method of delivering lessons that students, particularly children, will enjoy. We plan to bring the SIAB to far-flung areas so that students can also experience technology-aided class activities,” said Dr. Lucky May Pasia, Tingloy Public Schools District Supervisor, Department of Education (DepEd) Schools Division of Batangas.
Each School-in-a-Bag comes with a laptop for the teacher, 10 tablets for students, a flash drive preloaded with learning materials aligned with the DepEd’s curriculum, a guide for teachers, and one SmartBro Pocket WiFi unit. Complementing the SIAB donation is the onboarding of teachers to the CVIF Dynamic Learning Program (CVIF-DLP), a crisis-resilient and pandemic-tested teaching pedagogy that helps develop independent learners. Key to the CVIF-DLP’s success is training teachers to create the CVIF-DLP Learning Activity Sheets (CVIF-DLP LAS) that break complex concepts into simple notes and activities that fit on a single page.
The School-in-a-Bag highlights PLDT, Smart and PSF’s commitment to inclusive quality education through Information and Communications Technology, content, pedagogy, and capacity building to ensure that there is #NoLearnerLeftBehind. This initiative is also aligned with the PLDT group’s much broader program to help the country achieve UNSDG #4: Quality Education.