DepEd procures over 170,000 Macbooks for teachers, staff

MANILA, Philippines (Second update, 12:48 p.m.) — The Department of Education (DepEd) has placed a massive order for 170,000 Apple MacBook Neo laptops to equip public school teachers and administrative staff, marking the largest education deal in the company's history. The laptops, priced at around P43,000 each, will be delivered from this month through March 2027.

DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara emphasized that teachers have historically had to personally purchase expensive laptops or settle for outdated equipment. With this procurement, DepEd's computerization program will have contracted laptops for approximately 231,725 teachers, comprising 169,008 teachers and 3,646 administrative officers.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has committed to ensuring every public school teacher has a laptop by the end of his term in 2028. However, the teachers' group, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), criticized DepEd for handing out voice amplifiers while teachers awaited their laptops and expressed doubts about whether the planned 250,000 units would suffice.

DepEd justified the laptop purchase by stating that meeting performance, durability, battery life, and warranty standards had caused the delay. The P43,000 price per unit includes the laptop, productivity software, delivery, and teacher training, and is about P6,900 below the suggested retail price. Notably, the five-year warranty on the MacBook Neos is a first for DepEd's laptop purchases, significantly lower than the P58,300 each paid in 2021 for 39,583 laptops.

Apple CEO John Ternus shared the deal during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call, expressing optimism for future opportunities, particularly in education, health, emerging markets, and enterprise.