Eastern Samar public high schools receive 160 computers

By SAMMY CANDIDO (PIA Eastern Samar)
December 7, 2006

BORONGAN, Eastern Samar  –  Some 16 public schools in Eastern Samar have one special reason to rejoice nowadays. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) recently distributed 160 desktop personal computers to them under its Personal Computers for Public Schools (PCPS) project. Report said that branded desktop computers for each recipient school were completely installed with softwares and peripherals; each school package of computer was pegged at P375,000.00.

According to DTI Provincial Caretaker Eleanor Alido, the PCPS project is DTI’s response to the compelling challenges posed by the fast emerging knowledge economy. It aims to enhance the information technology (IT) skills of the Filipino youth as the country’s future knowledge workers and promotes IT culture in Philippine classrooms as an avenue to develop skills for the youths to be at par with global standards, she said.

In order to provide a continuous pool of manpower in the IT sector, Alido disclosed that DTI through the PCPS project promoted the need to incorporate IT in the basic levels of education by providing computers to public high schools.

Now on its third phase, the PCPS has already distributed a total of 450 personal computers to 29 public high schools and 14 LGUs since its implementation in 2003.

The recipient schools of the PCPS project will however provide a 9 by 9-meter computer laboratory, refurbishment of the room and the provision of an air-conditioning unit, the installation of proper electrical and lighting facilities, and the needed computer tables and chairs as counterpart to the project.