Government launches €22 million e-learning project

A 22 million euro e-learning project has been launched by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who said that the aim is for every four students in state schools to have access to a computer in class.

Details of the project were given by Information Technology Minister Austin Gatt, who said Malta currently met the EU average of 11 students per computer but intended to beat the current best of six students per computer.

He said 22 million euro would be spent over the next five years on a project that would see the government lease 10,300 personal computers for classrooms and 2,800 laptops for teachers.

Every school would be linked to the government's fibre-optic network and every classroom would be IT enabled, with its own website, which would enable teachers, parents and students to integrate better, the minister said. Classroom whiteboards would be interactive, with associated audio-visual facilities,

The installation of the new computers is expected to start during this scholastic year but the target is for the computers to be fully in use in the coming year.

The press conference, held at Margaret Mortimer Junior Lyceum in Sta Lucia, was attended by Education Minister Louis Galea.