BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
The Schools Division of Bacolod City received P21.9-million worth of gadgets last week to boost its Basic Education Continuity modalities amid the pandemic, its Superintendent Gladys Amylaine Sales, said yesterday.
Sales said that among the gadgets distributed were 1,000 units of Android-10 Tablets valued at P7,880 each, 200 units of i5 and 80 units of i7 laptop computers both Windows 10 powered each, valued at P34,494 and P88,610, respectively.
She said that the recipients of the tablets are the students and teachers under the Special Science Classes in Grades 3 to 6, Science and Technology Education in Grade 7 to 10, the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics strand in Senior High School and selected Special Education (SPED) schools.
Sales expressed her gratitude to Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia, Councilor Renecito Novero, who is the chairman of the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Education and other city officials who helped in materializing the purchase of the gadgets.
As to the 8th generation laptops, Sales said, they are intended for teachers and personnel facilitating both online and offline classes while the 9th generation laptops are for teachers and personnel who are developing, designing, editing and quality assuring curriculum materials for blended learning and online learning and broadcasting mode of teaching.
The gadgets were purchased in support of the Information Communication Technology/Internet Devices for Online and Offline learning (IDOL) and the Tablets for Advanced Batches (TAB) projects under the Blended Remote Education as an Alternative Delivery for Knowledge Improvement and Development Skills program using the budget from the local schoolboard.
Novero said that the city hopes that, through these gadgets, the students, especially those enrolled in the Special Science and Technology classes will be able to fully develop their potentials.
He said that aside from the gadgets, the city government through the local school board also funded the construction of hand-washing facilities to at least 14 schools in Bacolod.
PURCHASE LAWFUL
Bacolod City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan said the purchase of these gadgets were lawful and in accordance with the rules of the Bids and Awards Committee and it was not a negotiated bidding, contrary to what is being projected by detractors of the city government.
Asked why the brand of the gadgets was not specified in the purchase request, Bayatan said, there was no need to do so because when they buy the gadgets, they were after the specification and not the brand based on the rules of the BAC.
He stressed that the purchase of the gadgets should be according to the needs of the schools, also based on the rules of the BAC.*
