30 November 2009 The Rector of the Moscow Institute of Open Education and Jordan's Ministry of Information and Communications Techonology have been chosen as the winners of an annual United Nations prize for the use of ICTs in education.

They were chosen from among 39 projects in 29 countries by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the 2009 UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize.

Under the leadership of Rector Alexei Semenov, the Moscow Institute of Open Education has provided in-service training to about 30,000 teachers annually for the past 16 years.    

According to a news release issued by UNESCO, Mr. Semenov has developed exemplary programmes to enable teachers to include ICTs in their work, as w ell as textbooks and teacher guides used widely in Russia and other countries.   

Jordan''s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology won for its Jordan Education Initiative. Launched in 2003, the public-private partnership has trained over 3,000 teachers in ICT skills.   

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova will present the $25,000 award to each of the two winners at a ceremony on 26 January at the agency's headquarters in Paris.  

Honourable Mentions for this year's Prize went to Thailand Cyber University, which provides ICT training for teachers, and to the Red de Profesores Innovadores (Network of Innovative Teachers) of the Fundación Chile, which has set up a portal to help teachers use ICTs and exchange best practices. (SCOOP)