Awaiting the start of the new school year during the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the parents of pupils in North Macedonia have purchased a new computer or a laptop, instead of buying notebooks, pencils and many other school materials. They acted on the recommendations from the Ministry of Education and Science about the necessary minimal configuration (processing power and speed) for the computer they should purchase. Suddenly the computer stores received thousands of potential customers and, instead of offering discounts, they have used the opportunity and acted contrarily. So computers of older technology are sold at much higher prices than those they had only a year ago.
Meta.mk analyzed the recommended minimum specifications for the devices that will be used by the children for the distance learning process and the conclusion is that the National platform for distance learning (schools.mk) can work on almost all computers, laptops, mobile devices, and tablets purchased in the past three years.
This was confirmed by Vladislav Bidikov as well, an IT expert that is involved in the implementation of the National platform for distance learning.
“The Platform is a mix of two existing platforms, ‘Teams’ and ‘Moodle,’ and basically it can work easily on older devices that have any type of Internet connection. Most often, the 4G connection that almost every smartphone has is enough” said Bidikov za Meta.
He recommends that before purchasing a new computer, the parents should carefully read the FAQ at the Platform’s web page.
