Gigantic IT equipment tender begins. Government to spend record amount

• PLN 1.41 billion for equipment for schools – the Ministry of Digital Affairs announced a mega tender for laptops, tablets and browser laptops that will be delivered to public institutions in the 2025/2026 school year.
• The deadline for submitting offers is June 11. The only criterion for selecting offers will be price.
• The money comes from the KPO. The government is returning to the idea from the PiS era, but instead of giving the equipment to students as their property, it will be part of the equipment of schools.

A huge tender for laptops, tablets and browser laptops has just been announced by the Ministry of Digital Affairs. The devices are to be delivered to schools so that students can use them during lessons. The deadline for submitting offers is June 11. The entire procedure, according to the preliminary dates specified in the tender documents, is to be completed by December 2025. However, this date may be postponed, for example if contractors file appeals. In the announcement, the Ministry of Digital Affairs conservatively states that the devices will be delivered to schools in the 2025/2026 school year.

The only evaluation criterion in the tender is price.

The idea from Mateusz Morawiecki's times comes back

Why is MC buying devices for schools? This is an idea from the times of Mateusz Morawiecki's government - it was included in the National Reconstruction Plan . Although the plan assumed that the devices would go to schools, PiS politicians decided to give away laptops to fourth-grade students. This happened just before the parliamentary elections. However, because the European Commission has not yet released funds from the KPO for Poland, the purchase of computers was pre-financed from the Polish Development Fund. They cost PLN 1.2 billion.

However, the EC did not ultimately agree to such a move. Since funds for additional laptops (which were to be given to students every year) were not secured in the budget for 2024, the new government decided to suspend the program.

Barbara Nowacka (KO) and Krzysztof Gawkowski (Left) pledged in February that they would buy the devices anyway. Only for schools - however, this required talks with the EC about activating the funds included in the KPO and preparing a strategy for using computers in education.

This time, the equipment will go to schools and not to children

Today it is already known that the tender amount will be even higher than in Morawiecki's "Laptop for students" program - it is about PLN 1.41 billion . The procedure will be conducted by the Government Administration Service Center (COAR).

The order has been divided into three main parts, respectively for laptops, browser laptops and tablets. Additionally, enforcement proceedings will be divided into at least 73 subregions. As MC assures, it is about "supporting competition".

After the procedure is completed, the school authorities will sign agreements for free transfer of equipment with the Ministry of Digital Affairs. New computers - according to the decision of the Ministry of National Education - will only be given to public institutions. The exact location of the devices was decided by the Minister of Education.

Hardware requirements for the government program - how much RAM, what processor?

What requirements must devices from the government program meet? The entire specification is available in the tender documentation on the COAR website .

For laptops the minimum is:

• 64-bit processor designed to work in mobile devices and supported by the installed operating system;
• Laptops will be required to have 16 GB of RAM;
• an installed hard drive using SSD, eMMC or UFS technology with a capacity of at least 256 GB;
• the graphics card must be at least integrated with the processor, enabling the display of an image with the parameters of at least 1920x1080 @60Hz on the integrated display and on an external monitor;
• the matrix must be at least 15”;
• the laptop cannot be heavier than 2.5k;
• Your computer must have Windows 11 with a perpetual license or equivalent installed.

For browser laptops:

• 64-bit processor designed to work in mobile devices and supported by the installed operating system;
• minimum of 8 GB of RAM or unified memory installed;
• an installed hard drive using SSD or eMMC or UFS technology with a capacity of at least 128 GB or virtual space of at least 128 GB, available for a period of 5 years from the date of receipt at the location, included in the price of the device;
• graphics card at least integrated with the processor, capable of displaying an image with parameters of at least 1920x1080 @60Hz. Support for integrated display and external monitor.
• a color matrix with a minimum diagonal of 14"; the matrix coating must be matte to prevent light reflections.

For tablets:

• ARM architecture multi-core processor;
• at least 6 GB of RAM installed;
• installed SSD or eMMC or UFS storage with a capacity of at least 64 GB;
• color touch screen with a minimum diagonal of 10″, minimum native resolution of the screen: 1920x1080 (FHD).