Japanese schools abroad to get more PCs for online study as pandemic spreads

The government plans to supply more personal computers to Japanese schools overseas so students can continue to study remotely at home while avoiding the coronavirus. The education ministry intends to ensure each pupil at Japanese elementary and high schools abroad has access to a computer, widening the scope of the existing domestic initiative. It is estimated that about 12,000 pupils and teachers at such schools need new PCs or tablet devices, and the goverment plans to start distributing them as early as this fall, in addition to shouldering half the costs. For schools that want to add more than 50 computers, the government will dispatch information and communication technology experts for the task and pay half the costs. For the project, the ministry has set aside ¥500 million ($4.6 million) in the draft second supplementary budget for fiscal 2020.