IT Academy to open in Novopolotsk

September 2, Minsk /Olga Belyavskaya - BELTA/. An IT academy will open on September 4 in Novopolotsk, the administration of the High-Tech Park told a BELTA correspondent. The city IT academy will provide opportunities for adult further education, teach programming basics to schoolchildren in grades 3-11, and train them to use advanced technologies in educational, upbringing, and management activities. IT electives and an info-astronomy center will be opened here. In addition, distance learning will be organized on the basis of the academy. The material and technical base of the IT academy was created thanks to the sponsorship of seven resident companies of the HTP: "System Technologies", "EPAM Systems", "NaukaSoft", "SAMsolutions", "ITransition", "Marco", and "Soft-Tek Development". The HTP's activities to promote IT education began with the opening of computer classes, the first of which started operating in Maryina Gorka in September 2008, and the second in March 2009 in Klimovichi. In December 2009, Orsha became the first city in Belarus where the High-Tech Park implemented a project to create a city-wide resource center for information technologies, rather than for a single educational institution. "The uniqueness of the Novopolotsk IT academy lies in the fact that for the first time in Belarus, a scientific and educational creative academy will be opened for students, teachers, and parents on the scale of an entire city," the HTP administration emphasized. -0-