Rabindra Dhungel, 13 december 2020. Nepal Telecom has made public ‘Pathshala CUG SIM’. The SIM card has been launched to create a conducive learning environment for school going children as per the ‘School Education Contingency Action Plan 2077’ prepared by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
Under this, Nepal Telecom, in coordination with the Center for Education and Human Resource Development (CEHRD), will provide prepaid mobile ‘Pathshala CUG SIM’ free of cost with the objective of establishing learning link between government and community school teachers and students.
By uniting the teachers, students and parents of each school in the Close User Group (CUG) of the company, unlimited communication can be done within the closed group for Rs. 99 per month (excluding TSC, VAT, OT).
Similarly, 5 GB data service and bulk SMS facility will also be provided to run the website of Education and Human Resource Development Center. All courses and textbooks for grades 1 to 10 are available on the website of the Education and Human Resource Development Center.
The prepaid SIM card allows unlimited communication between teachers, students and parents, free use of the web portal of the Education and Human Resource Development Center and bulk SMS for educational purposes.
For the purpose of forming a corporate user group, a SIM card will be collected for every household studying in a public school and the phone number of the SIM card of each teacher of that school will be collected.
An arrangement has been made to include these phone numbers of each school in the CUG service and the fee for this will be borne by the Government of Nepal, users and service providers in partnership.
If the students, teachers and family members of a school do not have a SIM of Nepal Telecom, the company will provide the SIM free of cost as per the demand.
Under this service, each student and teacher will have to provide a photocopy of the citizenship and identity card of the teacher and student, a photocopy of the citizenship of the parent and a copy of the photo for the free SIM card.
Students will be able to get the SIM card in their own name or in the name of their parents. The ‘Pathshala CUG SIM’ provided to the students or parents can be obtained from the nearest office of the nearest Nepal Telecom Company by taking the recommendation from the local body in the formally filled form.
Similarly, the company has stated that it will provide toll free number at a concessional rate as far as possible from a technical point of view. In addition, the Education and Human Resource Development Center will compile and send a list of public schools that do not have internet service.
After that, Nepal Telecom will study and pilot to provide internet service through alternative medium (wireless broadband technology) in schools and expand mobile and FTTH in such places as per its action plan.