Education Ministry, Microsoft in JV to launch Teacher PC

The Ministry of Education and Microsoft last week announced an initiative calculated to transform the lives of teachers across Sri Lanka, with the introduction of its new Teacher PC.

Seen here is Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne (Country Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka) together with Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake and Education Minister Susil Premajayantha at the launch of the Teacher PC Initiative on World Teachers Day (5th October 2006). Three computers were handed over free of charge to three Sri Lankan teachers, to mark the launch of the PC.

The Teacher PC is an offer made exclusively available for teachers, giving them an opportunity to own their very own personal computer at a subsidised price, with three year's service warranty.

The initiative which is a joint effort between Microsoft, and the Ministry of Education (MoE), will essentially benefit teachers with the availability of instalment schemes for purchases; provided by the ministry and original software; provided by Microsoft.

In this scheme, there are 10 PC models with the total selling prices ranging from Rs. 44,500 to Rs 101,000 and at monthly installments of 36 months of between Rs 1,545 and Rs. 3505.

A Microsoft press release said the initiative will bring together several hardware partners, to ensure that there is sufficient geographic coverage and availability of the PC, thus ensuring that teachers do not have to travel far to purchase the computer. The pay-as-you-go model enabled by the Ministry of Education to all teachers employed by schools falling within the Ministry’s purview, will make PCs more accessible, by reducing the initial cost and enabling teachers to pay for computers through installments as they use them. This milestone initiative will equip thousands of new users with the power of low-cost, full-featured PCs through a tailored financing model that fits their lives and budgets.

The offer encompasses several models of Personal Computers and laptops which will be made available to teachers at subsidised rates through appointed PC vendors - PC House (Pvt) Ltd. and E-W Information Systems Ltd. (E-Wis).

Each PC will include Microsoft Office Standard (Faculty and Student Edition) as well as Windows XP Starter Edition or Windows XP Home Edition depending on the PC model.

The Ministry of Education and Microsoft have also made a joint commitment to provide each teacher who purchases a PC with ICDL training worth Rs 15,000.