The Queen of Spain visits the Open Schools Program - Press release

The Queen of Spain visits the Open Schools Program, a joint initiative of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the Open Institute to use ICT to improve the quality of Education in Cambodia.

Sofía, Queen of Spain, visited today the National Institute of Education (NIE), entity of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport in charge of training all the upper secondary school teachers in Cambodia.

At NIE the Queen visited the installations of the Open Schools Program, an initiative to integrate ICT in Khmer language in the education system. The KhmerOS/Open Schools Program has produced – thanks to the support of Spanish Cooperation - free computer programs in Khmer language for word processing, spreadsheets, Internet and other basic applications of computers. These programs are now being used in all teacher training centers and in all upper secondary schools that have computers in Cambodia.

The Ministry acknowledges that the widespread use of technology - a necessary catalyst for the economic development of Cambodia - is only possible when this technology is in the language of the country. It also understands that the education system is the fastest vehicle to spread the knowledge of technology all over country.

The Queen showed special interest on the results of the Low Cost Computing Research Laboratory for Education, a unit of the Open Schools Program that is currently studying and developing sustainable computers that require a minimum of electricity – a scarce utility in Cambodia – and very low maintenance. These computers, together with the current research on curricula, distance education and connectivity will become part of the Master Plan for ICT in Education that is being currently developed by the Ministry and the Open Institute.

The KhmerOS/Open Schools Program operates under funding from Spanish Cooperation, UNESCO and InWent.

For more information, please consult:

*. Open Schools Program - www.open.org.kh/osp
*. Open Institute - www.open.org.kh/
*. Ministry – www.moeys.gov.kh