450 Korean computers will be distributed to Moldovan schools following the adoption of a bill to allow the import and to exempt these computers from customs duties by Parliament on March 25. The computers are offered free based on a memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Education of Moldova and the Special Governmental Office for Education of Jeju Province of South Korea, IPN reports.

Deputy Minister of Education Cristina Boaghi, who presented the bill in Parliament, said the 450 personal computers/laptops will be delivered in three consignments. The first lot of 150 computers will arrive in Moldova in April, while the other two lots – in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

The computers will be offered to the schools that meet cumulatively a number of criteria. There will be selected education institutions with an acute shortage of computers, with ninth or twelfth grades, with at least 200 students who have potential to develop and will not be closed during the next three years in accordance with the school network optimization policy, and which are financed according to the new formula - cost per student.

According to a recent study by the Ministry of Education, about 13,000 computers are needed in schools at national level. The number of necessary computers at schools differs depending on the region and the school’s capacity. Most of the education institutions have computers that are old or in an insufficient number.