Government’s Last-Ditch Effort to Connect All Schools to Internet

The Education Ministry is set to connect all Iranian urban and rural schools to the National Information Network within a year with 150 billion rials ($577,000) earmarked for the project in the 2021-22 budget bill.
According to the ministry, the government has set a deadline of March 2022 to fully implement the project, but if the deadline falls short of funds, it should be financed through other resources, Peivast.com reported.
The National Information Network is a local network described by Iranian authorities as an alternative, independent network with content compatible with Islamic values to facilitate Iranian users’ access to indigenous content and curb educational disparity.
The project for connecting all schools to the internet through NIN was launched in 2012 and so far, more than 1 trillion rials ($3.84 million) have been invested in it.
The current year’s budget for the project amounted to 100 billion rials ($384,600), although the next year’s defined resources have increased by 50%. This might be the last time the government allocates a part of the budget resources to the project.
A couple of months ago, Information and Communications Technologies Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi told reporters that with the connection of 44,000 schools in less-developed rural areas to the educational network, the number of schools with internet access surpassed 86,000.