Students and teaching professionals can buy a copy of Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade and Office 2010 Professional Plus for a discounted price of €79.79 until October 31.

This is another in a series of initiatives resulting from the strategic partnership between the Government of Malta and Microsoft Corporation over the past 10 years. The substance of past strategic agreements with Microsoft consisted mainly of educational initiatives, as does the strategic partnership agreement signed between the Malta IT Agency (MITA) and Microsoft for the next five years signed recently.

One of the educational initiatives, in the form of Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade and Office 2010 Professional Plus being offered at the special price of €79.79 including VAT (around 85 per cent off the local retail price) has been launched. The products are also offered separately – Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade only at €34.21; and Office 2010 Professional Plus only at €45.58 including VAT.

From the sale of each package, €3 will be donated to Puttinu Cares or €1.50 if each product is sold separately.

Windows 7 Professional Upgrade and Office 2010 Professional Plus are some of the latest software from Microsoft, providing more power and features than previous versions, namely Windows XP, Windows Vista, Office 2003 and Office 2007. This educational initiative is a limited offer and applies exclusively to Maltese students and teaching professionals (including employees who work in schools and are recognised as educators) attending childcare centres, kindergarten, primary, secondary, post-secondary and tertiary educational institutions, whether state or non-state in Malta.

Students and teaching professionals can go online on www.mita.gov.mt/software to fill in the registration form and pay directly online. Registrations close October 31. Query calls can be made to the Microsoft authorised distributor, Newtech Ltd, on 2276 7909 during office hours.