Microsoft is eager to take part in Fatih, Turkey’s tablet education project, and determined to establish a research and development center in Turkey, Turkish Science and Technology Minister Nihat Ergün has said following a meeting with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reports Hurriyet Daily News.
“Microsoft declared its willingness to cooperate with local solution partners and insisted that it’s determined to found a research center in Turkey,” the minister said. Ballmer met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Feb. 22 before meeting with Ergün the following morning.
The Turkish government plans to replace traditional blackboards and textbooks in schools with electronic boards and tablet PCs as a part of the Fatih project in order to merge education with innovative information technologies and radically transform the perception of education.Within the project, the government will purchase approximately 15 million tablets for students, administrative employees and teachers in the first stage under the Public Tenders Law, which would make any technology player’s mouth water.