The inaugural meeting of the Council of the Memorandum of Cooperation “Computer for every child” at the Riga Castle took place on 28 May. It focused on organisational matters and current priorities of the Council in attaining the goals of Memorandum, i.e., ensuring that students and teachers in Latvia have access to appropriate computers for efficient learning by 2025.
Ieva Ilves, President’s adviser for information and digital policy and Chair of the Council, is convinced that the kick-off meeting was productive and Council members agreed that a lot of ground will need to be covered in the next months, therefore meetings will be held monthly. ‘Similar to other new initiatives ‘Computer for every child’ is faced with enormous workload in the first months of the project, with new school year quickly approaching and supporting European investments expected to reach Latvia soon. We need to build a strong and reliable team where all partners share common vision, aims and objectives and are ready to meet the agreed deadlines. Sense of unity was palpable at the inaugural meeting and I am pleased that we have started working on reaching the goal of making sure that students and teachers in Latvia have access to appropriate computers for efficient learning by 2025,’ stressed Mrs Ilves.
One of the first project activities is a joint computer procurement. Council members discussed institutional arrangements and experts required to make the acquisition of computers successful.
Allocation of funding required to launch procurement procedures could be decided by the government in one of its nearest meetings, added Mrs Ilves.