Laptop for Teacher (LT4T)

Last year, the Department of Education (DepEd) signed an agreement with hardware manufacturers to provide affordable laptops for public school teachers, launched as "LT4T". Here's an update.

In a conversation over lunch, a reliable source from DepEd informed our group that the project is on its final stages.

Under the LT4T program, every public school teacher and non-teaching DepEd employee will be entitled to one high-end laptop each, with the following schemes and features:

• Part of the total amount of the laptop will be shouldered by the department while the remaining percentage will be at the expense of the teacher-beneficiary, payable in zero-interest monthly installments.
• The laptop is powered by a new licensed Microsoft Windows 7 operating system.
• It has pre-installed open-source software programs harvested from the internet that are compatible to the current curricular offerings of public schools.
• It contains interactive teaching guides that can be used to make classroom instruction more interesting and effective. These include a proforma of lesson plans and student grading system among others.

Although it may sound easy to catch, the process isn't. The teacher will have to pass an online examination to be administered by IC3, an independent certification body, to qualify for a laptop.

Nevertheless, if the LT4T program will push through, teachers in the Philippines will have laptops at a 1:1 ratio. It will be the first in Asia.