The Philippines' science and technology agency announced on Wednesday that it is developing a low-cost tablet PC to replace textbooks used by schoolchildren.

Department of Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo said the tablet PC will cost only 3,000 pesos or $75 each and will lack many features of similar devices currently existing in the market.

According to Montejo, the cheap tablet PC primarily aims to relieve schoolchildren from carrying heavy textbooks to school while making Filipinos more competitive in science and technology.

Currently, a tablet PC like the Apple iPad costs about $700 to $1,200 in local stores. The iPad rival, Samsung's Galaxy Tab, has a reported price range of $200 to $1,000.

A more affordable alternative like the Wi-Fi-ready Amazon Kindle ebook reader sells for about 7,000 pesos or $150.

The One Laptop Per Child, an international non-profit group that makes cheap computers for schoolchildren in developing countries, distributes a $100 computer called XO-1 manufactured in Taiwan. Unlike the iPad, Galaxy Tab and Kindle, the XO-1 is not a touchscreen device and runs on the free operating system Linux.

The OLPC, however, does not include the Philippines in its list of beneficiary countries. It provides the cheap laptop initially only to China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria and Thailand.