TEHRAN – President Hassan Rouhnai is scheduled to officially inaugurate the first phase of Iran’s smart school network via videoconference on Monday.

Under the first phase, over 76,000 schools will be connected to the National Information Network, according to the Mobile Telecommunication Company of Iran (MCI).

The project, with the aim of “educational equality”, will connect 38,333 urban schools and 38,067 rural schools to Iran’s smart school network.

Mahdi Akhavan-Bahabadi, the CEO of the Mobile Telecommunication Company of Iran, announced that the national project will be carried out through cooperation among the MCI and three other contractors.

Akhavan-Bahabadi said 4,512 schools will be provided with high-speed internet by the MCI in the first phase of the project.

“The MCI has already played a key role in developing the country’s virtual education,” he said, pointing to the development of an application named SHAD, whose acronym in Persian translates as the Students Education Network.

“Currently, more than 11 million students and some 114,000 schools have been authenticated in SHAD and are using the services of this platform,” he added.