Panama Provides High-Speed Internet to 800,000 Students

The Ministry of Education (Meduca) reported that approximately 800,000 students from over 1,200 official educational institutions in the country now have access to high-speed internet with a capacity of 1000 Mbps. This initiative seeks to strengthen the educational system through modern, secure, and inclusive connectivity, fostering the development of technological skills in students and teachers to meet the demands of contemporary education. At the José Encarnación Escala school in West Panama, the installation and configuration phases of the service have been completed. School principal Dalis Solis stated that this will provide students and educators with high-speed connectivity for their academic and administrative activities. Key benefits of the internet access project include providing connectivity through fiber optic and satellite technologies, with a priority on fiber optic. In regions such as Panama Centro, Panama Este, Panama Oeste, Colón, and San Miguelito, the project for the acquisition, installation, configuration, and implementation of the internet service is 70% complete. Furthermore, photovoltaic systems will be incorporated in schools without access to electricity to ensure the service's operational continuity. The tender for the internet service generated a significant saving of 97% for the State, as it was awarded for 44 million dollars for the next five years. Had this service been acquired through current contracting mechanisms, the cost would have exceeded 1.5 billion balboas. Other important aspects of the project include enabling community internet in rural schools via external antennas, operating outside of school hours as a complementary social benefit, and implementing centralized academic content filtering to guarantee safe and educationally-aligned use.