The San Juan city government has expanded its blended learning capacity by establishing a Fiber Optic Internet and Learning Management System for public school students.

On Thursday, the students began experiencing fast and free fiber-optic connection for their online education while face-to-face classes are still prohibited amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Our public school students have consistently fared as champions during academic competitions, not only in regional levels but in international contests as well. These accomplishments should not be compromised just because of our current plight,” Mayor Francis Zamora said in his social media post on Wednesday.

The installation of Wi-Fi connection for over 6,000 households started last year.

“The free internet connection just rounded off my promise to the students. This will not only relieve the families from the burden of paying for internet connection but will also ensure that our less privileged but deserving students from public schools will not be left behind in this new norm of learning,” Zamora added.

Last week, the city government and the Department of Information and Communications Technology distributed computer tablets, laptops, and pocket Wi-Fi to 13,500 K-12 public school students.

The city government has now reached its goal of a 1:1 gadget-student ratio, according to Zamora.

He said the continuity of education is his top priority as the health crisis continues to grapple the nation, saying “not even the pandemic can hinder our mission to provide our students a quality education”.