JEDDAH: The Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology (MTIT) will despatch 80 educational caravans to different parts of the Kingdom to raise public awareness of computers and the Internet.
The campaign, which will be carried out in six phases and focus on rural areas, aims at making the Saudi society IT friendly.
The caravans will target primary and intermediate students who have no or rudimentary knowledge of computers as well as low-income groups and employees of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The targeted people will receive advanced training materials and publications and will be briefed on electronic government functions.
A caravan represents a bus with 15 to 20 trainees, each having a table and computer in addition to a coordinator and an assistant coordinator and Internet facility. There is a big screen for all trainees to see in addition to an internal sound system.
The project aims at providing basic information about computer science to people of rural areas. They will also be informed of government e-dealings. The program has no specific period and will be reviewed periodically to ensure its success.
The first phase, which is an experimental phase, will take one year and will be carried out in three small and three large provinces in coordination with the departments of education and social service.
The second phase, which will last for two to three years, will cover all provinces. In addition to MTIT, the Ministry of Education and related government departments and agencies will take part.
The Internet was officially introduced in the Kingdom in 1997 while the people were given access to it in 1999.
