{"id":74519,"date":"2026-07-03T07:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T23:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=74519"},"modified":"2026-06-27T22:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T14:18:13","slug":"school-in-a-bag-reaches-far-flung-schools-in-southern-leyte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2026\/07\/03\/school-in-a-bag-reaches-far-flung-schools-in-southern-leyte\/","title":{"rendered":"School-in-a-Bag reaches far-flung schools in Southern Leyte"},"content":{"rendered":"

Students in remote schools in the province of Southern Leyte learn how to read and solve mathematical equations using interactive tech-powered educational tools found inside School-in-a-Bag (SIAB) packages. The latest deployment, sponsored by the United Nations Children\u2019s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with PLDT Inc. (PLDT) and Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), the Department of Education Region 8, and the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), marks the global agency\u2019s fourth and largest deployment of SIAB kits to date.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOur mandate is to ensure that every child has equal access to quality education, especially those who are in the most marginalized communities. We hope this support will help drive meaningful changes in classrooms. These devices are not meant to add to teachers\u2019 burden, but to help ease their workload and improve the overall teaching and learning experience for both teachers and students,\u201d said Jieun Yoon, Education Specialist from UNICEF Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the School-in-a-Bag, we aim to ensure that high-quality digital tools are within children’s reach. We are grateful to have worked with UNICEF in reaching more remote schools in the region and bringing these portable digital classrooms directly to our learners,\u201d said Roby A. Alampay, FVP and head of the Public Engagement and Corporate Communications Group at PLDT and Smart.<\/p>\n

Benit Elementary School (Benit ES) in Malitbog, Southern Leyte, located about\u00a038 kilometers from Maasin City, is among the\u00a0beneficiaries of\u00a0this year\u2019s SIAB rollout. The support is expected to ease the burden of teachers due to personnel shortages.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are truly thankful to receive the SIAB funded by UNICEF. This is a big blessing for our learners, especially in multigrade classes where one teacher supports many students\u00a0at once. With or without internet connectivity, teaching and learning can continue seamlessly because the kit also works offline. Our heartfelt thanks to UNICEF, PLDT, and Smart for helping us deliver accessible and continuous learning for our children,” said Merry Ann B. Tagon, teacher-in-charge at Benit ES.<\/p>\n

The School-in-a-Bag is PLDT and Smart\u2019s portable digital classroom that carries a laptop, a Smart Bro LTE Pocket WiFi with load allocation, ten tablets, a comprehensive teacher\u2019s guide, and a collection of digital learning resources. These include contextualized Learning Activity Sheets (LAS) and #LearnSmart educational applications designed to build literacy and numeracy skills in the learners\u2019 Mother Tongue.<\/p>\n

Under its #KonektedForLearning\u00a0pillar, the PLDT Group, together with institutions like UNICEF, continue to bridge the digital divide and champion inclusive education. The SIAB project also supports the country\u2019s efforts to achieve UNSDG 4 on Quality Education by utilizing the power of technology to uplift communities and help create a future where no learner is left behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest deployment, sponsored by the United Nations Children\u2019s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with PLDT Inc. (PLDT) and Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), the Department of Education Region 8, and the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), marks the global agency\u2019s fourth and largest deployment of SIAB kits to date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":74520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[2550,379,383,1089],"class_list":["post-74519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-corporate-social-responsibility","tag-pldt","tag-smart","tag-smart-communciations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74521,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74519\/revisions\/74521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}