Dolores Cristina, Minister of Education, Employment and the Family (MEEF) and Mr. Claudio Grech, Chairman of Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) today announced the roll-out of interactive whiteboards in all state schools. The multi-million investment will see the introduction of over 1800 interactive whiteboards in state primary and secondary schools.

Following a tendering process, Hitachi Solutions and its local partners, Audio Visual Centre and Cutajar Ltd was chosen as the bidder with the most economically advantageous offer for the provision of Interactive Whiteboards. Both MITA and MEEF are working together on this project; MITA is ensuring that the right ICT infrastructure is available whilst MEEF are focusing on teacher training and content.

Interactive Whiteboards, enable teachers to deliver lessons in which students take a more participative role in the classroom, making learning more engaging and enriched with the ICT tools which the digitally aware generation interact with naturally. A combination of a large screen and a touch sensitive interface ensure that Interactive Whiteboards are easy to use and require no specialised skills. Training is being provided to all teachers to ensure they are fully aware of the potential to use videos, audio, animated characters, browse the Internet, create quizzes and more.

Mr. Grech who spoke on behalf of Austin Gatt, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Communication announced that to date Hitachi Solutions have installed 466 Interactive Whiteboards in state primary schools and that by next month, a further 579 in state primary schools and another 831 in state secondary schools would have been installed. Mr Grech added that, “when we consider today’s investment of €2.6million in Interactive Whiteboards and the €8.6million investment in the eLearning Solution which we announced some weeks ago, we come to a total investment value of over €11 million, solely in education.” The contract with Hitachi, including hardware and maintenance, covers a period of five years.

Mr Grech concluded by saying that, “this is not an investment in technology. This is indeed an investment in students’ education and in the professional development of all teachers.”

Minister Cristina explained how this project is another example of Government’s commitment to invest further in education which will ensure that our children get the very best. “Government’s investment in education goes beyond the building of new schools. We’re investing in each and every school because all students deserve the best,” added Minister Cristina.

“The interactive whiteboards project goes very well with the eLearning Solution which we launched some days ago and through which students will have access to high quality interactive learning content from school, at home and other places. In order to reap the most benefit from these initiatives, we are delivering an intensive training programme for all teachers,” added Minister Cristina. The training, split into over 400 sessions for all primary and secondary teachers is an additional investment of half a million euro.

The children, parents and teachers were also addressed by Mr. Yutaka Usuda, General Manager of Hitachi Solutions Ltd. – one of the leading companies in the IT service and software industry. Its Interactive Media Solutions Division has gained a reputation as an innovator in hardware and software products for interactive communications, delivering innovative solutions founded on the most advanced technologies in the market.

“It is our great pleasure to be selected to provide Interactive Whiteboards to the public schools of Malta. In addition to the equipment we will be able to provide educational content together with Cambridge University Press. On behalf of Hitachi Solutions and Cambridge University Press we look forward to a long and successful relationship with Government and schools,” said Mr. Usuda.

Hitachi Solutions’ local partners are Audio Visual Centre (AVC) Ltd and Cutajar Ltd. AVC has been operating as an education importation and distribution company since 1971. The company represents a number of international publishers and multinational companies who specialise in the educational product supply chain. On the other hand, Cutajar Limited was founded in 1981. Cutajar Limited (formerly trading as Francis Cutajar since 1950) has become a leader in the distribution of consumer electronics, IT equipment and electrical domestic appliances in Malta.

The capital investment of this project is part-financed by the Operational Programme I – Cohesion Policy 2007-2013 of the European Union (EU) under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Training is part-financed by the Operational Programme II – Cohesion Policy 2007-2013 of the European Union (EU) under the European Social Fund (ESF). Co-financing rate: 85% EU funds and 15% national funds.

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