Macedonia is the first nation to provide PCs to every
school child using virtual PC technology fromNComputing.
The Computer for Every Child project of the Macedonia Ministry
of Education and Science will deploy 180,000 NComputing-enabled
workstation seats, enough to provide every elementary and secondary
school student with their own classroom computing device.
NComputing's multi-user virtual desktop software and low-cost
virtual PC terminals, along with supporting Linux-based PCs, were
found to be less than half the cost of any other proposed system,
said Ivo Ivanovski, Macedonia's Minister for the Information
Society.
"The Computer for Every Child initiative is the largest and most
important education project undertaken in the 15-year history of
the Republic of Macedonia," said Ivanovsky.
"Our goal is to build a knowledge-based economy in which our
entire workforce is educated in using ICT within the next five
years," he said.
The supplier's technology allows a single PC to be shared by
multiple simultaneous users, each running their own applications.
Setup begins with software on the shared PC that creates multiple
virtual user desktops. Standard monitors, keyboards and mice then
plug into very low-cost virtual PCs - also known as access
terminals.
Pricing starts at £35 per seat.