Smart Communications and Protect Wildlife jointly funded 20 portable digital classrooms, dubbed as School-in-a-Bag, in a bid to educate off-grid localities on wildlife and biodiversity conservation.
School-in-a-Bag is part of the partnership between Protect Wildlife, a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development, and Smart’s parent company PLDT, Inc.
Together with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Protect Wildlife project aims to reduce threats to biodiversity and illegal trade of wildlife in ecologically significant areas in Palawan, Region 3, Region 9, and Region 12, while also promoting social and economic development in local communities.
Each water-resistant backpack contains a laptop, tablet, and DVD player for the teacher, as well as 10 tablets for students that are all pre-loaded with interactive, multimedia content accessible offline.
The portable digital classrooms to be deployed will also include educational materials on wildlife and biodiversity conservation, such as flashcards, worksheets, and storybooks. Since the bags will be going to off-grid learning communities, solar panels and battery charging units are also included in the package.
Teachers of School-in-a-Bag beneficiary communities are also trained on the CVIF-Dynamic Learning Program (CVIF-DLP), a pandemic-resilient strategy that supports distance learning and works in both online and offline delivery modalities.
Supported by Smart and PLDT-Smart Foundation for over a decade, CVIF-DLP is one of only three supplemental learning materials endorsed by the Department of Education for school year 2020-2021. Ready-to-use Junior and Senior High School Learning Activity Sheets can be downloaded for free at www.commons.deped.gov.ph.