Distance learning: Huawei to provide tech supports for students

In order to facilitate distance learning, the Huawei Bangladesh has partnered with Bijoy Digital to provide digital solutions for school going students.

The project named 'Bridging the Digital Education Divide to Reduce the Gap' under this partnership, will provide Huawei smart devices, Bijoy Digital App and connectivity for students (pre-school level to fourth grade) studying at T&T High schools across the country.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation is patronising the project, said a media statement issued on Wednesday.

The initiative was announced through a virtual ceremony on Wednesday.

Mustafa Jabbar, minister for posts, telecommunications and information technology, joined the programme as the chief guest.

Among others, Md Nur-Ur-Rahman, secretary to the same ministry, Dr Md. Rafiqul Matin, managing director, Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Limited, Beatrice Kaldun, head of office and Unesco Representative in Bangladesh, Jasmine Jui, CEO at Bijoy Digital, Halima Begum, head teacher, T&T Boys High School, Banani, and and Zhang Zhengjun, CEO of Huawei Technologies (Bangladesh) Limited, joined the event.

According to the media release, since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, all the schools in the country have been shut down to maintain social distancing, and it leads millions of children to be out of the education system.

Though many schools have restarted their operations through distance learning a higher percentage of the student population do not have access to digital technology.

Thus, digital technology with complimentary access to devices can transform the education sector and increase the rate of literacy across the nation even during the pandemic, the press release read. 

Initially, the project will start with T&T Boys High School in Banani and then move forward to other schools in two years.

Huawei, in this regard, will provide Huawei Tab (Huawei MediaPad T3 10) to students and teachers to T&T Boys High School, Banani in Dhaka to empower the process of digital education.

Bijay Digital will enable students to follow the national curriculum of Bangladesh in a digital innovative way. All the tabs will have pre-installed Bijay Digital apps.

By February 2021, the entities will ensure to provide the digital solutions for two other schools and will finish the project in August 2022. 

Minister Mustafa Jabbar said, "Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, educational institutions in the country remain closed to prevent further spread of the virus. But the government has been relentlessly working to find and apply alternate ways to ensure the continuity of learning."

"I find so much confidence when I see Huawei is realising the facts in the education sector and collaborating with local and UN organisations, took the initiative to distribute digital solutions to the students who do not have access to study," he added.