SOE for Schools.

About 120,000 seats catering to 40,000 teachers and administrative staff and 500,000 students will be rolled out over the next two years under the S$850 million contract for the Standard ICT Operating Environment (SOE) for Schools, which was awarded by the Ministry of Education in June 2010. Each seat comprises a computing device, network connectivity and support services for all Government and Government-Aided schools.

The SOE for Schools programme, which will be implemented by National Computer Systems Pte Ltd, supports the third Masterplan for ICT in Education (mp3) in providing schools with an ICT infrastructure that will continually enhance teaching and learning.

Facilitated by school-wide wireless connectivity, students will be able to use portable computing devices and access media-rich and interactive digital resources for learning opportunities beyond their classrooms. The programme will also provide an environment where schools can trial their innovative solutions for teaching and learning.

The programme consolidates the provision and management of desktops, messaging and network environment, as well as ICT support for schools. Schools will subscribe to the predefined services, on a per user per month basis. The standardisation of the ICT operating environment and aggregation of demand will lead to greater operational efficiency and cost savings for the schools as a whole.

The programme will be implemented in pilot schools from early 2011 following the setup of the central infrastructure, processes and governance of the programme. The rest of the schools will be transited in phases by end 2012.