The Ministry of Education and Science (MoES), with the support of European Union (EU) funds amounting to EUR 25 million, will continue the supply of laptops to teachers and students in vocational education, providing an indicative total of 28-30 thousand laptops. This is foreseen in the regulations approved by the Government today, 18 June.
The EU funds investment programme will be used to purchase computers for pre-school teachers, general education teachers and support staff in pre-school, general and vocational education institutions, including colleges, providing for the purchase of 18-20 thousand laptops. Approximately 10 000 computers will also be provided for vocational education students.
The investments provide opportunities to target a modern and sustainable solution for the implementation of the improved educational content, including distance learning, the real embedding of transversal skills in schools and the development of digital skills. The implementation of the project will ensure wider access to technology for teachers, support staff and learners, and promote the use of digital learning tools and platforms. The availability of computers for learners will contribute to a wider interest in information and communication technologies and related further educational choices. The practical use of computers in the learning process will also develop the digital skills of teachers and learners.
At the end of 2022, the first phase of the "A Computer for Every Student" programme has already been implemented, providing more than 25,000 computers to students in grades 7-9. At the end of 2023, with the support of the EU Recovery Fund, more than 35,000 laptops have been delivered to municipalities, prioritised for socially disadvantaged pupils. Thus, the implementation of the two EU investment programmes has enabled more than 60,000 laptops to be used for teaching in schools.
The project will be implemented by the MoES together with its partners, the founders of general education and vocational education institutions.
The computer supply investment project is planned to be implemented by 31 December 2025, providing indicatively 80% of the total workload of teachers and support staff with computer equipment for the implementation of general education content and strengthening the technical support of information and communication for the general education content for students in 75% of educational institutions founded by state and municipalities and educational institutions of state-founded universities implementing vocational basic education programmes and vocational secondary education programmes after the completion of basic education. The founder of the educational institution will have the right to distribute the computer equipment to teachers, support staff and students. In addition, local authorities and educational institutions will be supported to provide instruction or training to groups of computer users, and the MoES, as the project implementer, will develop recommendations for educational institutions and provide education on interactive learning platforms and learning management platforms for wider use and tracking of usage dynamics.
The purchase of computers with EU funding complements a broad, complex set of actions towards digitising the general education system to provide modern learning opportunities for every student. The use of computers should be flexible, both for teaching and learning, as mobile classrooms and for independent work at home or in educational institutions.
Cabinet of Ministers' Regulation "European Union Cohesion Policy Programme 2021-2027, Specific Support Objective 4.2.1 "Improving equal access to inclusive and quality services in education, training and lifelong learning through the development of accessible infrastructure, including promoting retention in distance and online education and learning" 4. The Rules for the implementation of the first round of the selection of project proposals under Measure 2.1.5 "Provision of educational institutions for quality implementation of the improved general education content at primary and secondary education level" are available on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers.
