JEDDAH, 9 July — Minister of Education Dr. Muhammad Al-Rasheed signed here yesterday a contract worth more than SR90 million with a national company to equip school computer laboratories.
Under the contract, Al-Alamiyah Electronic Company will make available 21,025 personal computers to 1,188 schools in different regions of the country within six months.
“We have carefully chosen the schools for the project from 50 different areas,” Dr. Al-Rasheed said after the signing ceremony.
In the first phase of the project, 540 school labs will be equipped with 9,352 PCs while the remaining 648 schools will get 11,673 PCs in the second phase.
“Al-Alamiyah agreed to provide three years of free maintenance of the computers, after which we will conclude a maintenance contract with the firm,” said the minister.
“We will launch an Internet site to provide maintenance to every PC, which will be given own user IDs,” said Hamed Al-Sharikh, chairman of Al-Alamiyah Group.
The project will include training of 1,188 teachers in 50 different computer programs.
Asked about plans to construct new school buildings, the minister said schools operating in rented buildings would be shifted to new premises soon. “Contracts have already been signed for construction of 200 schools,” he said.
Dr. Al-Rasheed said the Saudi population is growing at a fast rate increasing pressure on the government to provide more facilities for education.
He said last year the ministry had opened 600 schools and would open another 600 schools within a year.
