A public elementary school in EB Magalona, Negros Occidental, is getting a technological upgrade through a ₱3-million public-private partnership aimed at bridging the digital divide.
The Klaus Hoffarth Center for Critical Thinking (KHC) has partnered with the Department of Education (DepEd) Schools Division of Negros Occidental for a comprehensive digital and functional literacy program at Banilad Elementary School, located in Barangay Nanca, a press release from the foundation said Monday, June 22.
Funded by a grant from the Hoffarth family, the three-year pilot project—titled “Bridging the Digital Divide: A Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Pilot Project for Digital Literacy in Philippine Elementary Education”—was formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding signed by KHC founder Dr. Victoria Bantug Hoffarth and DepEd division officials to establish a modern, tech-integrated learning environment.
To build this new infrastructure, the initiative has supplied the public school with essential hardware and facility upgrades.
Students now have access to 30 Samsung A9 tablets pre-loaded with educational e-books, 20 ASUS Vivo Book laptops for foundational skills like typing and research, and 28 multimedia headsets for interactive lessons via Khan Academy.
For the faculty, four laptops were donated to assist with lesson planning and grading, complementing existing DepEd provisions.
Additionally, the funding covered the installation of Google TVs for digital classroom demonstrations, upgrades to the computer rooms, and a complete renovation of the school library to create a more functional space for young readers.
Beyond providing hardware, the partnership directly addresses student learning needs through targeted reading comprehension tutorials for non-readers and structured digital literacy classes for third and fourth-grade students, the press release said.
To boost engagement, KHC also held a book drive that brought more than 200 new children’s books to the newly renovated library.
Educators are already reporting immediate changes in student capability and confidence, with classroom teacher Francis Buenaflor Jr. noting that learners have rapidly progressed from learning how to turn on a computer to successfully typing essays and saving their own documents, the press release said.
Students have shared similar enthusiasm, expressing joy over their newfound ability to read independently and explore historical events through the library’s expanding collection, it said.
Looking ahead, project organizers view the Banilad pilot as a potential model for national replication, with KHC, school leadership, and DepEd committing to monitor student progress over a three-year period to measure long-term learning outcomes.
Mian Arcega, KHC’s Project Monitor, emphasized that functional and digital literacy are vital skills that must be nurtured early on, sharing hopes that this success will encourage more private institutions to step up and uplift other public elementary schools.
Upon the project’s conclusion, KHC plans to publish a final paper documenting the outcomes to provide a scalable public-private partnership framework that can better equip educators and learners across the Philippines for the digital age, the press release said.*
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