24/08/2020 10:22
Schools are being technologically upgraded for online education, Kyriacos Kokkinos, Deputy Minister to the President for Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, said on Friday after a meeting of the Council of Ministers at the presidential residence in Troodos.
He said that regarding connectivity, 80% of schools will be ready by September 7th, while the remaining schools are the ones that need fiber optic interconnection, which requires additionally time of one to two weeks.
Kokkinos said that the plan is to install large televisions instead of projectors and added that studies have been conducted in all schools to assess the readiness and preparations needed.
He said he hoped that these measures will be implemented soon and that they will be ready to go to plan B if need be, that is remote education sometime in September.
Asked about the cost, he said that the estimated cost for the interconnection alone will be around 350,000 euro per year.
He pointed out that today the cost is at 260,000 euro per year.
Kokkinos said that the necessary equipment will be rented, and this is estimated to have a cost of around 2 to 3 million euro per year.
Concluding, he said that there is a one-time cost for the upgrades, which is 150,000 euro per year.