Wataniya Educational added by Arabsat
June 15, 2021
By Chris Forrester
There’s a considerable help now available to school children in North Africa and Tunisia and elsewhere under the Arabsat satellite footprint who can now enjoy following their education classes from home.
The youngsters can also review educational curricula and programmes at any time by watching the first Tunisian educational channel, Wataniya Educational.
Tunisia’s National Radio and Television Broadcaster (ONT) has signed a long-term agreement with the Arab Satellite Communication Organization (Arabsat) to launch their first educational channel over the Arabsat Badr-4 satellite, which covers the Middle East, North Africa and most Western European countries and offers a high power to be received throughout Tunisia and the across region.
This agreement comes within the framework of the growing strategic partnership between ONT and Arabsat. It is designed to provide a unique and high-quality viewing experience, in a unified satellite TV bouquet of national Tunisian channels, and to facilitate its distribution and access to Tunisian and Arab viewer wherever they live under Arabsat Badr-4’s satellite footprint.
Test transmissions began on April 1st 2021 and joined its sister national Tunisian channels broadcasting on the same bouquet.
Zakir Albakoush, President and GM of ONT said: “I am very pleased that we have reached this day when we will be able to communicate our educational message and broadcast the curriculum to all our students throughout the Republic of Tunisia in a manner that is easy and accessible to everyone. Keeping up with the global development in the fields of satellite TV broadcasting and the possibility of recruiting it to serve the educational institution. And of course, our first choice was to cooperate with our most prominent Arabic organisation Arabsat, which has provided its best potential via their satellite Arabsat Badr-4, to help our dear students pursue their studies in all possible and evolving ways, in the current conditions of the pandemic and frequent public lock-downs”.
“The launch of such educational channels comes is in parallel with the initiative launched by Arabsat at the beginning of last year, 2020, in which it called for the provision of satellite broadcasting capabilities to serve important sectors of the state affected by the overall lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic, like education, health and civil defense. Arabsat has been keen to support these sectors across all Arab states as part of our social responsibility and to assist them in communicating their programmes and awareness messages to people at homes, and here, we value ONT decision to use our services in supporting Tunisia’s educational system, and we look forward to developing our partnership into broader perspectives,” said Khalid Balkheyour, Arabsat President and CEO.