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Katrina Apelada is a grade two student at the Rawang Elementary School in Tanay, Rizal. Every day, Apelada and her classmates walk through hills and forests just to go to school. Their community is so remote that it has no electricity. Like most of her schoolmates, she has not seen, much more used a television, computer, or tablet.

Last July, Apelada and her classmates had their first encounter with technology. Representatives of mobile leader Smart Communications went to their school and donated a learning tool package called School-in-a-Bag. This contains a solar panel for electricity, a laptop, a tablet, a mobile phone, a pocket WiFi with starter load, LED TV, and learning modules.

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“For so long, the Philippines has been divided by geography. This makes access to information extremely hard. Smart wants to unite the islands through internet connectivity. We go to schools in mountains, on isolated islands, places where there is no electricity, to bring School-in-a-Bag,” said Darwin Flores, Smart vice-president for community partnerships.

Rawang Elemetary School is just one of 10 schools in remote areas in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao that will receive School-in-a-Bag units from Smart this year.

Technology for learning

Maria Asuncion Tongohan, a kinder and grade one teacher, said the kids were wide-eyed and somewhat shocked when they first saw the digital tools. She herself was very excited when the School-in-a-Bag arrived. “We really don’t have electricity here so when we saw the solar panel, we realized we could use technology in teaching.”

Teachers can now connect to the internet and download educational videos using the Smart Pocket WiFi included in the package.

Individuals and organizations can also bring the gift of digital learning to more schools in the country by sponsoring a School-in-a-Bag. Each package costs P100,000. For more information on how to donate, interested parties may send an email to TechnoCart@smart.com.ph. (pr)

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