L-R: Monica Ang-Tan, USAID Office of Education; Stephanie Orlino, AVP and Head of Stakeholder Management; Brandon Miller, Acting Deputy Mission Director at USAID Philippines; Tonisito Umali, Undersecretary for Legislative Affairs, External Partnerships and Project Management Service at the DepEd; Diosdado San Antonio, Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction at the DepEd; Cathy Yap-Yang, FVP and Group Head of Corporate Communications; Alex Caeg, SVP and Head of Consumer Sales at PLDT and Smart; Elvin Uy, Executive Director at Philippine Business for Social Progress.

PLDT wireless unit Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) is helping the government reach more learners across the country with digital innovations that bring the school to remote communities. 

Smart and long-time partners United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Philippines, RTI International, and Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) recently turned over 100 School-in-a-Bag (SIAB) kits to the Department of Education (DepEd) to support distance learning. The SIAB packages are bound for last-mile schools in Bicol as well as other parts of Luzon, Western Visayas, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). 

The School-in-a-Bag is a portable classroom that contains learning equipment, digital tools including mobile applications, and connectivity devices to bring quality education to hard-to-access places.

“We need extra help to meet the needs of almost 24 million public school learners from Kinder to Grade 12 because government funds, alone, are not enough to provide each one with a gadget or access to a gadget,” said Tonisito Umali, Undersecretary for Legislative Affairs, External Partnerships and Project Management Service at DepEd. 

“Since 2016, more than 500 School-in-a-Bag packages, including the ones we just donated, have been deployed across the country. We have also trained more than 4,000 teachers, enabling us to reach almost 95,000 students nationwide. We at PLDT and Smart strongly believe that no learner or teacher should be left behind,” said Alex Caeg, Senior Vice President and Head of Consumer Sales at PLDT and Smart. 

“It is important for the U.S. and Philippine governments to work together with the private sector to make sure that all of our children, especially those in hard-to-reach places, are learning throughout the pandemic and even after the pandemic,” said Brandon Miller, Acting Deputy Mission Director at USAID Philippines. 

Launched in 2016, the SIAB is a portable classroom that contains learning equipment, digital tools including mobile applications, and connectivity devices to bring quality education to hard-to-access places. The 100 SIAB kits recently donated also include content such as USAID’s Kotobees learning materials in local language. 

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.