Philippines Department of education begins distributing 230,000 laptops to teachers

The Department of Education (DepEd) in the Philippines began distributing over 230,000 laptops to public school teachers and administrative officers.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos attended a ceremony in Dagupan City, Pangasinan, where the agency handed over the first batch of 209 MacBook Neo units to 10 schools. One recipient, Dagupan City National High School, received 72 units, a notable increase from the four official laptops the school previously held for its staff.

The department is distributing a total of 172,654 MacBook Neo units and 62,717 Windows-based units through the DepEd Computerization Program. The agency plans to complete the distribution of the MacBooks by March 2027. This initiative follows the delivery of 140,430 laptops for teachers between 2022 and 2025. To determine recipients among the 900,000 public school teachers in the country, the agency set specific eligibility rules.

Qualified teachers must have an active teaching assignment, a DepEd email with multi-factor authentication, and no government-issued laptop received between January 1, 2023, and November 6, 2026. The agency prioritizes teachers who lead educational technology efforts, such as ICT coordinators and Khan Academy teachers, before moving to other eligible staff and those replacing lost or destroyed devices. School heads must review teacher assignments and history before encoding a finalized list into the Teacher Assignment for Laptop Allocation (TALA) system.

The agency stated that the laptops remain government property. Teachers who are promoted or reassigned outside of the teaching track must return their devices for reallocation.