Secondary schools in Brussels get 700 tablets

Secondary schools in the Brussels-Capital Region will be getting 700 tablet computers this week under the fourth phase of the multimedia plan launched by the city’s information technology minister Brigitte Grouwels. The region has already provided schools with 3,100 new computers, but this is the first time that tablet computers have been distributed on such a large scale. Some 2,000 extra computers and 100 servers are also being delivered to classrooms during this phase.

Under the multimedia plan launched in 1999, some 550 schools representing 175,000 students will be supplied with free computer hardware. The aim is to give Brussels students the skills they need to work after they leave school. At present, 40% of young people under the age of 25 in Brussels are unemployed, partly because they lack the necessary technical skills.