Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunication, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, and Microsoft company, have launched a project of introduction of wireless Wi-Fi network in schools in rural areas of Serbia.

In addition to high-speed Wi-Fi network, which use will be free of charge, 40 primary and secondary schools with more than 17.000 pupils and 2000 teachers, will get a high-level safety and control of using the contents on the Internet through a dedicated portal.

“This project is one in the series of our joint efforts to improve the infrastructure in schools in order to raise the level of digital competences of teachers and digital readiness of schools. Improving the teaching by using the ICT and introducing the digital services in school running is a precondition for schools for making digitally competent pupils, ready for the life in the 21st century”, Minister of Education, Science and Technological Development, Mladen Šarčević has stated.

State Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunication, Tatjana Matić, has expressed her expectation that technological modernisation in these schools will ensure improvement of the teaching process, that is, the adequate studying of IT subjects, which are going to be mandatory starting from next school year.

“Strengthening the information and communication infrastructure of the education system, particularly in rural areas, is a condition for implementing the contemporary teaching curriculum and eliminating the social and economic gap between the upcoming generations”, State Secretary has stressed.

“The project of providing Wi-Fi services to schools in Serbia is extremely important for the Microsoft office due to our commitment to the support of modernisation of education in Serbia. It also means our commitment to the active and good cooperation with the line ministries in Serbia, which commits us to keep working on introducing new technological solutions contributing to the competitiveness of our upcoming generations and the country as a whole”, Mr Željko Vujinović, Director General of Microsoft to Serbia and Montenegro has said.

The project was launched on March 20, 2017, with the installation of the equipment for four locations – in primary school in Bač and Gymnasiums in Novi Pazar, Raška and Požega. The plan is to install equipment in the remaining schools by the end of May, and by the end of June also the use of Microsoft Office 365 services for education and improvement of teaching for teachers and pupils in the selected schools.