Laptop for every pupil in Uruguay

Uruguay has become the first country to provide a laptop for every child attending state primary school.

President Tabaré Vázquez presented the final XO model laptops to pupils at a school in Montevideo on 13 October.

Over the last two years 362,000 pupils and 18,000 teachers have been involved in the scheme.

The “Plan Ceibal” (Education Connect) project has allowed many families access to the world of computers and the internet for the first time.

Uruguay is part of the One Laptop Per Child scheme, an organisation set up by internet pioneer Nicholas Negroponte. His original vision was to provide laptops at $100 (£61) but they proved more expensive.

The Uruguay programme has cost the state $260 (£159) per child, including maintenance costs, equipment repairs, training for the teachers and internet connection.

The total figure represents less than 5% of the country’s education budget.

Around 70% of the XO model laptops handed out by the government were given to children who did not have computers at home.

“This is not simply the handing out of laptops or an education programme. It is a programme which seeks to reduce the gap between the digital world and the world of knowledge,” explained Miguel Brechner, director of the Technological Laboratory of Uruguay and in charge of Plan Ceibal.

“A revolution”

In the run up to Uruguay’s general election on 25 October, the project is being promoted as an achievement of the Tabaré Vázquez government.

“It’s been a revolution, which has helped us enormously, but it hasn’t been easy,” explained Lourdes Bardino, head teacher of School 173 in Las Piedras.

Read more . . .

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Tags: connect project, internet connection, laptop per child, laptops, olpc, world of computers

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