Iran's Minister of Information and Communication Technology Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said that his ministry has managed to link more than 70% of schools across the country in 7 months, adding that, however, the Education Ministry has failed to provide material for the network.
Azari Jahromi said that a government plan for connecting Iranian schools to the National Information Network (NNI) had reached a good level of progress some seven months after it was launched, although he admits that the education department has been slow in providing various content services in the network.
“The statistics that came out two weeks ago of a last project control showed that more than 70 percent of all schools across the country had been connected to the NNI,” said Azari Jahromi.
The minister suggested, however, that the progress made on an integrated system meant for providing educational content through the NNI had been relatively poor, saying it is totally up to Ministry of Education to provide the services.
Azari Jahromi said that the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) had paid for all the costs associated with setting up the NNI infrastructure in the schools, including the installation of some smart equipment needed for using modern education services.
“One of our dreams in the ICT is to see pupils feel the joy of being connected to the NNI,” he said, adding, “The infrastructure layer for linkage is our responsibility and we would definitely create it.”
The Iranian government has been developing the NNI concurrent with plans to expand the coverage for fast Internet services across the country.
The NNI helped maintain many key services across Iran during an Internet blackout that came following fuel-related unrest in Iran in November.
Authorities plan to launch a first version of super-fast fifth generation Internet technology, known as 5G, until March 2021.
Latest government estimates suggest that more than 70 million people are currently using the fourth generation Internet services mostly through mobile applications.
In December, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that developing and strengthening the National Information Network does not mean that the international network of the Internet will be cut-off.
The government wants people to enjoy strong domestic internet network along with the foreign internet, President Rouhani said at the cabinet session held in Tehran this morning.
Rouhani said the National Information Network (NIN) or Iran’s intranet will be bolstered as so that "people will not need foreign [networks] to meet their needs."
Rouhani pointed out that one of the policies of his administration was strengthening infrastructures including the Internet bandwidth. "It has grown 20 times since the beginning of the 11th administration," he said.
Source: Fars News Agency
Add new comment