The San Juan City local government, in partnership with Converge ICT Solutions Inc., launched on Friday the Fiber Optic Internet and Learning Management System that will provide free internet connection to the city's public school students to help them in their online classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora and Converge ICT Solutions, Inc. CEO and Co-Founder Dennis Anthony Uy led the launching at Sta. Lucia Elementary School.
The program enables all San Juaneño public school students to be provided with fast and reliable fiber optic internet connection with WIFI modem for their online education.
The installation started last year for over 12,000 students living in over 6,000 households.
Zamora said that education has always been one of the main priorities of his administration.
"Not even the pandemic can hinder our mission to provide our students with quality education," he added.
“Our public school students have consistently fared as champions during academic competitions not only in regional levels but in international contests as well. These accomplishments should not be compromised just because of our current plight," he said.
On April 28, the city government, in partnership with the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT), turned over a total of 12,500 tablets, 1,000 laptops, and 1,000 pocket WIFIs to all public schools and PTA representatives for all K-12 public school students. The distribution to the parents are set to finish this week.
READ MORE: DICT turns over educational tools to San Juan City’s public school students
“The free internet connection just rounded off my promise to the students. This will not only relieve the families from the burden of paying for internet connection but will also ensure that our less privileged but deserving students from public schools will not be left behind in this new norm of learning," Zamora said.
"We now have a 1 is to 1 ratio of San Juaneño public school students living in San Juan and studying in San Juan public schools vs. tablets and laptops (for grade 3-6 Pinaglabanan Elementary School students). As of 2019, we have already achieved a 1 is to 1 ratio of laptops vs San Juan public school teachers." he added.