Smart’s School-in-a-Bag is a portable digital classroom often deployed to last-mile schools to help facilitate quality basic education.

When Mr. Rodel Magyaya took the helm as principal of Mansilay National High School in Tagkawayan, Quezon in 2021, he wanted to do more to help students and teachers adapt to disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“Our school caters to learners from remote, mountainous barangays of the municipality that’s why we’re also known as the heart of the mountain zone,” said Magyaya.  

Mansilay National High School is about 20 minutes away from the town proper. Around 300 junior and senior high school students have enrolled this school year. Like most learning institutions, it made use of blended learning where lessons are coursed through modules or online platforms. But many learners experience difficulties attending online classes because of lack of devices or access to connectivity. 

Partnering with Huawei Technologies Philippines, JCI Manila, and PLDT-Smart Foundation, PLDT, Inc. (PLDT) and wireless unit Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) donated a School-in-a-Bag to boost distance learning at the school. The portable digital classroom is deployed to last-mile schools to help facilitate quality basic education. 

“We believe that through this project, we can increase enrolment, limit student dropout, and help expand teaching methods. We were hoping to receive one laptop but you have given us so much more,” said Magyaya. 

And he’s right. There’s more to Smart’s School-in-a-Bag than a single laptop. The water-resistant backpack also contains 20 tablets, a Smart LTE Pocket WiFi kit, and a USB storage device preloaded with learning materials and videos. Both the laptop and the tablets have been preinstalled with educational content and Smart’s proprietary #LearnSmart apps featuring alphabet and number exercises, short stories and games in native languages and dialects that are also available offline. 

Representatives from PLDT, Smart, PSF, Huawei Philippines and JCI Manila turnover one Smart School-in-a-Bag to Mansilay National High School in Tagkawayan, Quezon.

To further expand the school’s blended learning program, Smart had earlier trained teachers on the Central Visayas Institute Foundation-Dynamic Learning Program (CVIF-DLP), an inclusive and crisis-resilient teaching strategy that promotes independent learning among students. 

The School-in-a-Bag highlights PLDT and Smart’s commitment to inclusive quality education through Information and Communications Technology, content, pedagogy, and capacity building to ensure that there is #NoLearnerLeftBehind. These initiatives also underscore the PLDT group’s commitment in helping the Philippines achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) No. 4 on Inclusive Quality Education.