Uruguay provides a laptop for every primary pupil
Girl helps a friend to log on to the wi-fi, Northern Uruguay
Uruguay is the first significant country to provide a laptop for every pupil attending a state school. While Niue, led the way back in August 2008, Uruguay is the first country with a significant population to provide such a programme. Part of the One Laptop Per Child scheme, the laptops have cost approximately £159 each including maintenance, training for teachers and internet connection. This represents less than 5% of the country’s education budget.
Issues with staff remain the same worldwide however, as one headteacher reported:
“We have a lady who’s been teaching for 30 years and when they gave us the computers and the training, she asked for leave because she didn’t want to have anything to do with the programme. Later she changed her mind and now computers have changed the way she teaches.”
The use of the laptops is at the discretion of the teacher and it seems some teachers are not including computer use in their lesson plans. The full story is on the BBC News website.
Image credit: Lightripper
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October 17th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Is Portugal not a significant country then? Over the last academic year, every child in primary school in Portugal was given the chance to acquire a Magalhães Intel based laptop for 50 euros or less, depending on family income.
January 13th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Such kind good quality stuff connecting to this topic should be taken by freelance writers , I’m sure.