Microsoft supports 3rd Kuwait Edutech conference as Diamond sponsor

Edutech is the largest event of its kind

Kuwait, October 11, 2012 - Microsoft participated in Kuwait Edutech 2012 Conference & Exhibition as Diamond sponsor and "Education Partner" along with its partner K12NET. The event, held under the patronage of His Excellency Dr. Nayef Al Hajraf Kuwait Minister of Education and Higher Education and Chairman of the conference, highlighted the latest education technology and innovations that aim to transform the education sector and enhance learning experiences in Kuwait.

Dr. Khaleed Al Rasheed, Assistant Undersecretary for Planning and Information, Ministry of Education inaugurated the event. Microsoft, as a Diamond sponsor, showcased its latest education solutions innovations where Mohamed Al Tura, Microsoft Kuwait Business Development Manager highlighted in one of the key sessions covering the Partners In Learning program agreement in cooperation with the Ministry of Education that was signed back in 2010, in terms of its achievements in these 2 years journey.

This is Microsoft Kuwait third year consecutive participation, in-line with Microsoft Kuwait's commitment to long-term commitment to education, and its approach to helping achieve the goal of providing every child in the State of Kuwait with an excellent education utilizing technology as the main enabler to achieve this excellence.

Addressing key executives, assistant under secretaries and under secretaries from various education institutions in the Kuwaiti education sector during his key session, Mohammed Al-Tura said: "Microsoft Kuwait is dedicated to supporting the vision of the Kuwaiti government and Ministry of Education through its strategic partnership, and strives to help realize the government's aims in developing the education sector in the country."

Al-Tura also highlighted the impact of the Partners In Learning program with the Ministry of Education where more than 500 teachers are master trainers, reaching out to train more than 5000 teachers, and impacting more than 12000 students to date. The Partners in learning program provides the platform for teachers to utilize free tools from Microsoft to enhance the learning and education environment, share knowledge and best practices with teachers and educators worldwide, to help students achieve their full potential, and create a collaborative community of like-minded school leaders. The goal of the Partners in Learning Network is to enable three areas of focus:

• Connecting teachers and school leaders from around the world.

• Creating communities dedicated to teaching and learning.

• And offer content and curriculum that enables sharing new ideas to help transform education.

Continually supporting the government's development of educational systems and curriculums, Microsoft this year partnered with K12NET, an enterprise student information management system that aims to connect all stakeholders of an educational organization. This includes connecting administrators of educational agencies, school staff members, teachers, students and parents. This digital platform provides real time data transaction, effective interaction between stakeholders, business intelligence reports and statistics for strategic decision making.

K12NET is a multi-lingual web-based solution that is currently used by around 1400 schools by the Ministry of Education in United Arab Emirates as well as private educational organizations in Turkey.

Microsoft takes a holistic and long-term approach to supporting education and is working closely with governments, educators, parents, students and NGOs in Kuwait to open up access to technology that can improve the quality of teaching as well as the learning experience for students of all ages.

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About Microsoft Gulf
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ:'MSFT') is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft Gulf opened its Dubai-based headquarters in 1991. Microsoft Gulf today oversees Microsoft activities in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE. Microsoft Corporation's address on the worldwide web is: www.microsoft.com and Microsoft's Gulf web site is: www.microsoft.com/gulf.

For further information please contact:
Microsoft contact:
Abeer Kamal
Tel: +965 22430248
Email: abeerk@microsoft.com

Media contact:
Nadin Al Alami / Stacy Lobo
Tel: +965 22901575
Email: nadin.alami@bm.com / stacy.lobo@bm.com