IT and Education: Web portal for teachers, pupils and parents

At St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, June 16-18, it was announced about a joint project of the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Communications and Mass Media and Russian mobile phone provider MTS which resulted into a new Web portal called to bring together teachers, pupils from different schools and parents on a common Internet platform.

The vice president of MTS Mikhail Gerchuk mentioned that around 900 schools have connected to the pilot project. “We are satisfied with these results, by the end of the year we are planning to connect several thousand schools”, he said, adding that in 2011 the website will become absolutely free for use.

The portal will offer access to “e-rucksack”, which is an online-record book and a class register. There teachers will put marks, while parents will have a chance to look through these marks online.

Apart from this, the new resource will make available various educational materials. In addition, GIS services will notify parents about their children’s arrival to school or departure. However, this option is only supported for schools equipped with the systems of passes and turnstiles.