The Ministry of Education and Science provided tablets and laptops for distance learning in an electronic environment
Over 40,000 mobile distance learning devices in an electronic environment will be purchased by the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) and provided in schools with an identified lack of devices. More than BGN 16 million from the budget of the Ministry of Education will be used. Schools will receive the devices by the beginning of the school year or by the end of October at the latest.
The purchased devices will be:
-24,500 tablets for distance learning in an electronic environment. They will be running Android. The devices will be suitable for equipment with wireless internet cards. Last year, the Ministry of Education and Science gave the principals the opportunity to buy such cards with the realized savings from the school budgets.
-15,500 laptops, Windows tablets and chromebooks under existing contracts. They are expected to arrive in schools by the beginning of the school year.
The tablets and laptops will fully cover the needs stated by the schools. A year ago, the Regional Departments of Education collected information on the need for 166,000 devices at various schools. With funds from the state budget in October 2020 and mostly with funds under the project Equal access to school education in crisis conditions, funded by the European Covid-19 Crisis Response Instrument, tens of thousands of devices were provided to schools. Tens of thousands of other tablets and laptops have been provided as a result of donation campaigns organized by the schools themselves and by NGOs. For example, as part of the Old Devices for a New Beginning campaign, the Amalipe Center managed to provide more than 1,200 devices, which were distributed to more than 100 schools. It was especially important that many parents, including parents from vulnerable groups, bought the necessary devices for their children. As a result of all this, by June 2021 the Ministry of Education and Science collected information about about 40 thousand necessary devices.
Amalipe Center congratulates the leadership of the Ministry of Education and Science for the opportunity provided to all schools with an identified need for distance learning devices to receive such devices! Of course, this is not enough, but it is an important prerequisite for the inclusion of all children in distance learning in an electronic environment.
See more:
The distance learning over the past school year: what has happened