Yerevan/Mediamax/. 414 Armenian schools will be connected to internet in 2011, Deputy Head of the National Center for Educational Technologies (NCET) Armen Kulakhszyan said in the interview to Mediamax today.
After the connection of 414 schools to internet the total number of the schools connected to the network will make 1358 or 93,5% from the overall number of schools.
In 2003, Project Harmony organization implemented the first stage of school connection to internet in Armenia. The project was financed by the US Department of State. In 2003- 2007, the number of schools connected to internet was 324.
The second stage of the program was implemented in 2008 within the framework of World Bank’s credit program. 320 schools have been also connected to internet at that time. In 2010, the NCET connected 300 other schools to the already established infrastructure.
As of early 2011, 944 schools have been connected to internet in Armenia. Internet is available also for 236 schools due to their own means.
The School network functions in all marzes of the republic, and all schools of the capital have already been connected to internet.
As of early 2011, the number of computers in Armenia’s secondary schools makes 14 061, against 13 027 of last year. The general index makes 9,7 computers per school.
Interviewed by Mediamax, Armen Kulakhszyan said that in many countries the schools are provided with internet, but do not have their local networks. “In our case the schools get a maximally filtered internet from a united center. It will deny the pupils access to internet sites with bad content,” he noted.
Particularly, in accord with the internet network maintenance agreement, the access to sites with sexual content and propaganda of violence in Armenian schools has been denied.
It should be noted for comparison that as of 1 January 2011, the level of internet-penetration in secondary schools in Azerbaijan made 22%. According to the report endorsed by the Ministry of Education and Science of Azerbaijan, this index has grown 15 times in recent 5 years.
