DepEd to prioritize first-time recipients in MacBook rollout

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) will prioritize public school teachers who have never received a government- or school-issued laptop in the rollout of 231,725 newly procured devices, Education Secretary Sonny Angara vowed yesterday.

Angara said the selection guidelines under the Laptops for Teachers (L4T) initiative aim to ensure that limited resources go to teachers with the greatest need for a laptop.

“We want to ensure these laptops go to teachers who can maximize them most for teaching and learning, while keeping equity at the center by prioritizing teachers who have never received a government- or school-issued laptop. These guidelines set clear rules so schools can select recipients fairly and transparently,” Angara said.

The procurement covers 172,654 Apple MacBook Neo laptops for public school teachers and
administrative staff nationwide and 62,717 Windows-based laptops for teachers. Of the MacBook Neo units, at least 3,646 will be distributed to administrative officers.

Angara said the available units were allocated proportionately based on teacher counts across regions, divisions and schools using a structured formula.

Distribution will begin tomorrow in schools that have not previously received laptops under the L4T component of the DepEd Computerization Program.

Within these schools, teachers may qualify if they have not received a laptop through other government programs, local government units or school donations.

Recipients will be selected based on their existing access to gadgets, teaching responsibilities and digital readiness to ensure that those with the greatest need for a functional device are prioritized fairly and consistently.

DepEd said qualified recipients must have an active teaching assignment and an active DepEd email account with multi-factor authentication enabled.

They must also lack a working government- or school-issued laptop received between Jan. 1, 2023 and Nov. 6, 2026.

Personally owned laptops and shared equipment will not disqualify teachers from receiving a unit.

DepEd reminded recipients that the laptops remain government property. Teachers promoted or reassigned outside the teaching track must surrender their devices for reallocation.