THE DEPARTMENT of Education will distribute three months-worth of internet load to teachers in June as part of the agency’s support to teachers.

“With or without the pandemic, the Department has actively advocated for policies and programs that will further support our teachers. Through this connectivity allowance, we hope to continuously assist our teachers in their duties to deliver quality education to our learners amidst the situation,” Education Secretary Leonor Briones said.

During the EduAKSYON press conference in Region XI, Undersecretary for Administration Alain Del Pascua said the department has started the procurement process of the connectivity load that will provide public school teachers with 30 to 35 GB data allocation per month.

“We will begin to roll out siguro next month. We will be asking our teachers to register in DepEd Commons para mabigyan sila ng load sa kani-kanilang cellphone,” he added.

Pascua noted that the 35 GB per month is adequate for the teachers’ online teaching activities as the 1GB bandwidth a day can be used for eight hours of online webinars, downloading, watching of videos, among others.

In addition, the unused data allocation will be rolled over to the following months up to one year until the user fully consumes the 100 GB.

“Ine-expect namin na napakarami ng magagawa mo sa bandwidth na ito, ine-expect namin na higit tatlong buwan hanggang anim na buwan magagamit ng teacher itong connectivity load,” Pascua said.

“Pino-procure na rin po ngayon ‘yung ilang libong laptop sa DBM-PS (Department of Budget and Management – Procurement Service) para maibigay rin sa ating mga teacher at mga walkie talkie para dun sa mga lugar na mga walang cellphone signal. Ang gagamitin naman natin DepEd Radio through walkie talkie,” he shared.

Through its partnership with the Department of Information and Communications Technology and Converge ICT Solutions Inc., DepEd has also started acquiring satellite connectivity for the Last Mile schools or those in far-flung places.

“So, in a matter of few months, ang ating mga Last Mile schools, mga dalawang libo po sila, magkakaroon sila ng satellite connectivity. They can now be connected,” Pascua said.