One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is it really going to work……

I saw it on the East African news headlines about the initiative One Child Per Laptop plan ready working in Rwanda, oh not again I meant One Laptop Per Child, actually the first slogan is what the critic sees about the program they say is just “getting laptops to the poor kids”  . The project is aiming at educating the young generation aged between (6-12) years old through computer believing that, the teaching would become more efficiency, speed their mind and the way they reason and prepare them for the fast growing tech world.  The harsh reality is that most of the kids are using for playing more than the targeted goal which was for them to learn through the computers.

Fact, “More than 2.5 million laptops have been distributed in 46 countries since 2007 under the innovative initiative”. The effort is just great, but the issue is that are the people to whom the digital devices “the laptops” provided to them  prepared for the big changes? On the study made on Peru alone, Peru distributed more than 800,000 low cost computers to the children across the country, is among the most committed country to the cause. On the study done there on 319 schools in a small rural communities which were supplied the laptops the proof of their success is very low.  The critics believed that the government was not yet prepared when they dwell into the program.  “In essence what we did was deliver the computers without prepare the teachers,” said Sandro Marcone, the Peruvian educational officer who now runs the program. The study has found that no increase in math or language skills, no improve in classroom instruction quality, no boost on time spent on homework, no improvement on reading habit.

In Africa the Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ghana and Sierra Leone are the countries which are involved in the program. The program seems to be promising in Ethiopia the reports said. Dutch researchers from the University of Groningen, published last year in the journal computer and education that the OLPC laptops have improved abstract learning. Ethiopia received 5000 laptops from G1G1 program, Ghana ordered 10,000 laptops, Rwanda received 20,000 laptops from G1G1 program while Sierra Leone ordered 5,000 laptops. Some industry stakeholders have been given they are thought about the program  some are suggesting the program would at least be more efficient in a country like Rwanda whereby the population  is small and recent they have been working intensively to combat corruption. But the questions that remain is, would the laptops survive the bureaucracy and hard Africa corrupted systems?

Practically for some African countries, where the teachers are on strike day in day out due to the harsh working conditions, low salary and no bonuses, it is very difficult for this kind of project to see through it purposes.