Kuwait's Ministry of Education (MoE) launched on Monday a program that aims to replace textbooks with e-books. Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Ahmed Al-Mulaifi indicated at a press conference that "this project will present books in an exciting way, making them more fun and appealing to students. He added that the first batch of flash memory sticks will be distributed to high school students before the upcoming Eid Al-Adhha vacation, while elementary and intermediate students will receive theirs after the holiday. "Information technology is not a luxury but a national duty. We can use it to transfer education from its traditional form to an electronic one in order to maximize potential for both student and teacher," Al-Mulaifi explained. He also noted that the projected cost of the project had been trimmed from KD 490,000 to 259,000 thanks to the efforts of those involved. Meanwhile, MoE Undersecretary Mariam Al-Wutaid announced that the project will be continuously developed until it reaches its goal of placing interactive textbooks in students' hands. She reported that a total of 908 textbooks will be converted into the new electronic form, while 371,000 flash memory units will be distributed soon.