€20 million programme announced to digitally upgrade schools

Schools across the island will become more digitally advanced, Education Minister Prodromos Prodromou said on Tuesday announcing that a tender has already been launched to upgrade the technological capabilities of classrooms.

The tender covers digital equipment, software management, local area network management and immediate real-time technical assistance in classrooms, he said.

Each classroom will have a computer, video projector (where applicable), suitable smart TV set, individual microphones, group microphones, video cameras (for educational programmes) and electronic writing boards with pen-graphic tablets (where applicable).

He has also proposed that around 14,000 students should be provided with an individual digital device.

The upgrades will apply to about 6,600 classrooms, Prodromou added.

The government and education ministry will invest €11 million in this project while a further €9 million will be financed by the EU’s recovery and resilience fund.

Over the course of the pandemic schools have been closed while children have been at home self isolating, which saw the introduction of online learning.

In order to allow all pupils access, the education ministry activated 111,243 accounts on the Office 365.

The ministry said the upgrade programme will include curriculum adjustments, support material and teacher training.

Internet connection and internal networks in all schools have been upgraded in collaboration with CyTA since 2019, Prodromou added.

To date, 400 schools have e-learning capabilities, 3,755 computers were donated, 770 video projectors installed, 12,200 electronic tablet-type devices provided, and 4,100 free internet access cards provided for children who did not have access from home, Prodromou said.