Microsoft (Thailand) has agreed to fund the second phase of the Partners in Learning (PiL) project, which offers training courses for primary and secondary school students and teachers.

The company has received around $7 million (238 million baht) funding from Microsoft headquarters.

Patama Chantaruck, Managing Director, Microsoft (Thailand), said that Microsoft has extended its second phase of Partners in Learning programme to Thailand by allocating 3 percent from PiL's $250 million budget.

PiL is a collaboration between the Ministry of Education's Office of Basic Education Commission and Microsoft (Thailand). The second phase covers 2009-2013.

Since the launch of the programme in 2004, Partners in Learning has reached more than 4 million students and 80,000 teachers have received ICT skills training. Microsoft is committed to using ICT as a mean of bridging the digital learning gap and taking Thai education to the next level so that it can meet international standards and allow for enhanced competitive capabilities in the future. Building on these efforts, the next phase of the programme will be leveraged via the three key principles of Innovative Schools, Innovative Teachers and Innovative Students.