The Department of Education (DepEd) division in Makati City announced on Thursday, Nov. 21, that it is rolling out a total of 750 units of Intel Education Tablets, which it acquired for a total of P30 million.
Dominico Idanan, superintendent of Makati’s DepEd division, said they acquired the e-learning tablets to be used by the city’s 37 public elementary and secondary schools, which have a population of 2,730 teachers and 89,860 students.
As part of the Intel Education Solution or IES, the 10-inch Intel studybook tablet PCs are bundled with hardware, software, infrastructure, digital content, services, training, and support.
Idanan said the initiative is timely, given the urgent call for engaging and interactive education in the country.
“We are optimistic that our investment in the Intel education tablet will help equip these students who make up the next generation of the Filipino workforce for the increasingly digital future and workplace,” he said.
Idanan said DepEd Makati has also partnered with service providers to provide teachers the needed content and ICT integration.
The DepEd official noted that with the support of the Makati local government unit, they were able to provide public school buildings with modern facilities.
“All our schools have computer laboratories with Internet connections with 1:1 computer to student ratio per class in the average,” he said, adding the division also has a robotics program to enhance pupils’ and students’ design and computer programming skills.
“Coupled with other devices like television sets and e-learning kits consist of one laptop, one LED projector and one wireless interactive pad, teaching and learning becomes more fun, relevant and effective,” Idanan said.
The stylus-equipped tablet powered by a single-core processor Intel Atom Z2460 features e-learning tools such as e-Reader, science exploration and data analysis application, painting tools and accessories, a snap-on magnifying lens, and plug-in thermal probe. The device weighs less than 1 kg. and has 6.5 hours of battery life.
Meanwhile, Intel Philippines announced its partnership with education technology solutions provider Felta Multi-Media to enable an education transformation initiative in local public schools through Intel’s IES offerings.
Only recently, Intel donated 25 Intel Education Tablets, solar-power equipment and also provided training to teachers of the Marilog Central Elementary School (MCES) in Davao City.
According to MCES principal Zenaida Ayop, the technology has brought positive changes in terms of students’ learning interests, attendance, and engagements with their classmates and teachers.
