Greetings of Peace!
As regards OUA MEMO 00-0620-0030 released on June 08, 2020, TeacherPH believes that the laptops, desktops, tablet PCs, tablets, and smartphones minimum specifications to be donated to schools, teachers, and students for distance learning might be a little bit impossible due to financial reasons considering the low income of the majority of parents sending their children to public schools.
Moreover, some public school teachers might also carry the burden of spending extra to acquire laptops/desktops with high specifications. They, too, are heavily hit by this pandemic.
Laptops/desktops with specifications mentioned in the memorandum cost Php 20,000 and above. Purchasing an equipment with such cost won’t be possible to many that’s why DepEd needs to find out ways in which will make it possible for the majority to access DepEd Commons. We believe that promoting the use of smartphones to make online learning possible might be the best solution. It can be done by optimizing DepEd’s learning materials for mobile consumption.
Majority of the Filipino households have smartphones, and through this device, online and distance learning can be made possible.
This pandemic has hit us hard, especially those families who only have little means to survive. It would be very helpful to consider the situation of the majority if we are to design a tool that will make education easy to access amidst this crisis.
Thank you and more powers!
Mark Anthony Llego
DepEd employees are overworked and underpaid. Please hear our requests for devices which passed the standards now that we will be teaching online. Thanks for this article.