Parliamentary Secretary for EU funds, Ian Borg announced that €12 Million have been set aside from the EU funds for providing tablets to every student in Malta on the 26th January, 2017. Some 12000 students are poised to benefit from the scheme directly.
Addressing a press conference, Borg said that the One Tablet Per Child project intends to help Malta reach its goal in the EU 2020 targets. “Both areas have been identified as areas in need of a significant effort in order to reach the EU-wide bench-marks,” he said. “The main result indicator will be to reach 50% of teaching time in schools using digital technologies.”
In addition, other schemes were also launched including like CONvErGE, a project aimed at developing new e-services in the fields of health, environment, customs and interdepartmental services. It is expected to cost nearly €57 million and aims to have a user base of 65% of the Maltese population. Another announced project, SIntergraM, has plans to fund a major upgrade of the Planning Authority’s website.
“It will enable the implementation of an integrated process where the interface between government, citizens and the business community would be able to use updated information in real time and in a reliable and verifiable format which shall also result in increase of e-services usage in the Maltese islands,” Borg said.