Omantel partners with Ministry of Education to support distance learning in Oman

Muscat: As part of its initiatives aimed at supporting the efforts exerted by various government organisations to overcome the challenges resulting from the outbreak of Coronavirus, Omantel has announced a new partnership with the Ministry of Education to introduce G Suite for Education to all schools in the Sultanate.
Teachers and students will have access to G Suite for Education, a suite of free Google apps tailored specifically for schools, including the ability to create documents, attend classes remotely, receive and submit assignments, and even collaborate on an interactive canvas. Users can log in from any computer or mobile device to access the class assignment, course materials and feedback. By using this new platform, education in the Sultanate is envisaged to enter a new era benefitting from distance learning opportunities.
“Being the provider of integrated telecommunication services, we assume our responsibility to assist our enterprise customers including government organisations and companies to overcome challenges resulting from the outbreak of Coronavirus. As the recent period has witnessed the suspension of schools to eliminate the spread of this pandemic, it is natural to look into alternatives that can enable students to retrieve the unstudied educational content through distance learning without the need to attend school,” Aladdin Abdullah Baitfadhil, General Manager of Sales at Omantel Consumer Business Unit commented.
“G Suite for Education serves as a practical option in these circumstances as teachers can now perform their duties, share educational content and hold exams online. This, in turn, would make a breakthrough in the educational system in the Sultanate by employing cutting-edge technologies; the most important of which is distance learning. Having 95% country-wide broadband coverage through different technologies (fixed, mobile and recently 5G network) ensure our students' effective access to G Suite for Education from almost anywhere in the Sultanate,” Aladdin Baitfadhil concluded.
Dr Nasser Abdullah Al Abri, Director General of IT at the Ministry of Education said, “We are pleased with this cooperation with Omantel providing G Suite for Education in the Sultanate. A group of programmers, designers and technicians from the Ministry were deeply involved in this project. This will help us offer the educational content that was supposed to be provided at schools during the closure period. This platform is useful for both teachers and students as it also incorporates other Google apps and tools they already use.”
“G Suite for Education will be provided to over 450,000 students (Grades 5 - 12) across the Sultanate. Grade 12 students will be the first to adopt the suite of tools from March 29, followed by students in other grades shortly,” Dr Nasser concluded.