March 29, 2024

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Nine schools in Sablan and Tublay received digital libraries from the Department of Science and Technology-Benguet Provincial Science and Technology Center.

The DOST-Benguet PSTC led by Director Sheila Marie Singa-Claver turned over four digital libraries or Starbooks to Tublay while five were given to Sablan.

The recipient schools in Tublay are the Becday Charosas Lamsis Elementary School (ES), Ciriaco Magno ES, Langbis Primary School, and Moran ES.

In Sablan, the recipient schools are the Taya Multigrade School, Pappa Multigrade School, Michael G. Angel ES, Ebbes ES, and the Jose Gonzales ES.

Claver said the Starbooks is the first digital library in the Philippines that can be operated without Internet connection.

It is a stand-alone information source that contains hundreds of thousands of digitized science and technology resources in various formats such as text, video and audio, which are placed in specially designed “pods” set in a user-friendly interface.

Claver said the deployment of Starbooks is one of the five entry points of the Community Empowerment through Science and Technology Program for Sablan and Tublay aside from education, human resources development, economic development, health and nutrition and climate change.

“Let the learners use it for they are the reason why these are given in the first place,” said Claver as she encouraged the schools-beneficiaries to maximize the Starbooks.

The schools-beneficiaries also extended their gratitude to DOST and pledged their commitment to maximize the use of the Starbooks, not only in the schools but will be open to anyone who is interested in the communities. DOST-Cordillera staff member Dejoia Lee Andres conducted the administrators and users training prior to the deployment of the Starbooks to the different schools. – Redjie Melvic Cawis