The first phase of a smart school network called Dana (meaning wise in Persian) has been launched to facilitate e-learning and curb educational disparity in Iran.
Over 76,000 schools nationwide (94% of all schools) have already been linked to the network, providing students a chance to connect with teachers and use online education, Peivast.com reported.
President Hassan Rouhani and Minister of Information and Communication Technologies Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi inaugurated the network during a conference held in Tehran on Monday. The event was also attended by deputy ICT minister Amir Nazemi.
According to the officials, Dana Network has been established in collaboration with major mobile operators, including Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran, Irancell and RighTel, with an investment of 1.8 trillion rials ($6.12 million).
Dana offers an infrastructure for converting conventional schools to smart education centers, which can provide students and teachers with a variety of educational content.
The platform is run on the National Information Network, an independent setup whose content is locally accessible and compatible with Islamic values.
Besides the platform, different educational services offered on Dana were also introduced at the inaugural event.
According to Amir Nazemi, Dana Plus service, developed by Irancell, enables teachers to hold online classes on Dana network.
LiveBook is another service that gives an opportunity to students to share educational books. On LiveBook, students can take a photo of any page of their school books and see a list of different educational content (clips, tests and more) relevant to the concerned page.
The third service is Haftin, which according to Nazemi, enables the developers of educational content to connect with students on Dana platform.
Underlining the fact that these are only some of the services available on the network, Nazemi said the platform has a great capacity for running additional programs.
“Dana’s horizon of services will definitely expand when the next phases of the network come on stream in the near future,” he said.
Speaking at the inaugural session, Jahromi said that to facilitate the use of the newly-established online education platform, 13 million schoolchildren, 1 million teachers, 4 million university students and 100,000 university instructors are provided with free internet access as a gift.
E-Learning Infrastructures
Jahromi noted that since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Iran in February, the use of online education has raised hot debates among authorities.
“E-learning is a pivotal factor for promoting social and educational justice nationwide,” he said, adding that the ICT Ministry has been developing the required infrastructure in rural and remote areas in the past few years.
Jahromi said, “At present, 90% of villages with more than 20 households are connected to NIN and work is on track to increase the number to 100% by the current Iranian yearend [March 2021].”
The linkup with National Information Network has improved the quality of life in villages and of treatment in medical centers.
“A large number of schools and educational centers in the urban and rural parts of the country have been connected to the network, giving the students of rural areas an equal opportunity to gain access to high-quality education,” he said.
With the most recent connection of 44,000 schools in less-developed rural areas to NIN in late September, the number of schools with internet access surpassed 86,000.
“This prepares a strong infrastructure for virtual education. The implementation of the plan was to finish by the end of the last Iranian yearend [March 2020], but impediments in supplying equipment put off the work till the present,” Jahromi said.
During an earlier meeting with officials of Plan and Budget Organization, President Hassan Rouhani had requested internet service providers and mobile network operators to provide free internet access to students.
Rouhani stressed that no student should be left out of the education system, adding that state TV will also use its resources to grant learners access to educational content.
Speaking to the local media, Jahromi said the ICT Ministry is also designing a project to provide high-speed internet access for all universities by the current yearend (March 2021).
According to the minister, there are around 1,000 universities in the country, which will be connected to NIN via fiber optic.
The use of the internet in the last school year drew criticism, as many students in underdeveloped regions lacked the technological means to participate in classes.
Providing internet connection for schools have seen ups and downs for a long while, but the ICT and education ministries’ initiative last year to upgrade schools into smart educational centers is seemingly putting an end to the several-year saga.
The agreement between the two ministries includes various measures, such as connecting all schools to NIN and equipping them with basic modern tools needed by students and teachers.
Disparity in Connectivity
According to Jahromi, the expansion of ICT infrastructure and internet access is aimed at realizing “communication justice”, which is a part of “social justice”.
The ICT minister earlier said the development of communication and internet access has helped online education, startups, the banking system and news broadcasting through social media to grow significantly.
“The infrastructure proved its usefulness, especially in the past several months, when the Iranian people were struggling with the outbreak of coronavirus,” he added.
Announcing that internet traffic within the country has increased by 150% in the past several months, the minister said, “Given the increasing dependency of lives on ICT technologies, exclusion of underdeveloped areas from the rapid growth of technology means condoning social inequality and injustice.”
Jahromi noted that all these measures are aimed at bringing about a digital revolution, the results of which will help shape a digital economy.
“Besides creating job opportunities, the move will prepare the ground for the young generation to play their part in the domestic economy,” he said.
In late August 2019, President Rouhani said that in terms of convenience, all efforts are being made to fill the gap between urban and rural living conditions.
Villages and metropolises should be developed in tandem, for which extensive efforts have been made to provide all villagers with potable water, energy, health and communication services.
Experts in the field say that by bridging the communication gap between cities and villages, migration to cities will decline.
