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Al-Ahram Weekly 9 - 15 March 2000 Issue No. 472 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 9 - 15 March 2000 Issue No. 472
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Books Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Public schools join the web
By Niveen WahishIn an attempt to broaden Egypt's computer-using base Microsoft Egypt and Oracle Egypt, the international software giants' local arms, have both launched major initiatives over the past few months targetting school and university students.
Early last month Oracle Egypt signed a protocol with the Ministry of Education according to which the Egyptian company will train teachers in the latest computer technologies. The initiative, named Oracle Promise, dovetails with the government's declared aim to develop human resources by introducing the Internet to public schools.
"Linking Egyptian schools to the Internet will allow the educational system to provide its students with the most recent and advanced Internet training," says Oracle Egypt's managing director, Atef Helmy.
The initiative will provide access to the Internet for over 3,000 public school students at an investment of around $120,000. Egypt is the first country in Africa, and only the fourth worldwide, to adopt the initiative, which has been promoted internationally by Oracle.
In addition, an "Oracle academic protocol" has been signed with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, offering access to programmes and training in the most recent Oracle products to staff and students specialising in IT and engineering sciences. Student laboratories in 24 technical faculties will receive Oracle's data base and internet development tools and university staff will be trained in their use at a cost of $5 million. Students will be able to download and use Oracle products free of charge throughout their academic careers.
A similar initiative was launched by Microsoft Egypt following the signing of an agreement, renewable on a yearly basis, with the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Marine Transport. According to the agreement teaching staff and academy students will receive discounts on a broad range of Microsoft Windows programmes.
The new agreement, says Microsoft Egypt's general manager Aly Faramawy, will benefit staff and students by ensuring that they are provided with the company's latest programmes while at the same time protecting the company against piracy of its software.
Microsoft, in cooperation with Compaq, Acer and Link Egypt, is also participating in a scheme to train up to 500 Egyptians in the use of Windows 2000.
Training costs on the scheme are to be subsidised by up to 90 per cent, leaving students with only a nominal fee of LE70. On successfully completing the course they will receive internationally recognised certification.
Meanwhile a consortium of companies, including Microsoft, Compaq Egypt, Goldi, Link Egypt, Citibank, Master Card, Knowlogy and MobiNil, is embarking on yet another initiative, Internet Baladna, which aims at enabling average consumers to purchase personal computers and get connected to the Internet. The hardware is available through Goldi and Compaq, internet connections through Link Egypt, software -- Windows 98, Word 2000 and Internet Explorer 5.0 -- from Microsoft, and special credit deals are available from Citibank.
