Du, Etisalat to provide free data to families who don't have home internet

In coordination between the Ministry of Education and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, Du and Etisalat will provide free mobile data for families who don’t have home internet services in a step to enable them to use distance learning, it was announced on Abu Dhabi TV on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, authorities have confirmed that a link sent to parents of private school students in Sharjah and Dubai is genuine.

The link takes users to a survey on internet connectivity.

Parents were initially confused as to the legitimacy of the link, which asked them to submit all their details to get free data from local telecomms providers to help with distance learning during the coronavirus outbreak, especially when Etisalat denied association to the link in twitter posts and told users to avoid it.

However, Sharjah Private Education Authority have now announced the link was genuine.

In a statement, SPEA said the link was to a survey to gather student data to establish numbers of students who didn’t have access to the internet or had issues logging in to distance learning apps.

“We are focused on providing a proper educational environment for the next term without any problems,” said SPEA in a statement. “We provided schools with digital references, including direct links for 60 platforms and educational applications to support schools with the distance learning,” the statement added.

The Knowledge and Human Development Authority in Dubai (KHDA), also confirmed to Gulf News that they had sent out a survey on internet connectivity for students.

Distance learning has been introduced by UAE schools and universities from March 8 to April 4 to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Source: Gulf News