THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers said that the 68,500 laptops that the Department of Education plan to purchase will not be enough for the education sector.

“Sa pagpapabaya at kabagalan ng gobyerno, isang school year na ang nasakripisyo. The already measly allocation is even put to waste due to inefficiency, while our teachers and students hurdle distance learning without enough teaching and learning resources,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

DepEd said that the laptops worth P2.4 billion is funded by the P4.3 billion financial assistance under the Bayanihan bill.

“The education sector needs way more than that. Napakalaki ng backlog ng gobyerno sa pangangailangan ng edukasyon,” Basilio said.

Basilio stressed that the 68,500 laptop units is just a drop in the bucket because these can only cover 7 percent of DepEd personnel.

“Nakakadismaya para sa ating mga guro na habang naghahabol sila at gumagastos sa module printing, ang kaunting nakalaan para rito ay hindi pa mapakinabangan. It is no consolation that these can still be used for the next school year as the damage has already been done,” he said.

“The current school year is about to end, and the planning for the next one should be well-underway. Key to this is for the Bayanihan 3 Act to succeed where the 2021 General Appropriations Act failed— allocate sufficient budget for the needs of education,” he said.