One learner, one laptop
A group of volunteers has launched an ambitious project to provide every pupil with a laptop by the end of next year.
The group, which calls itself One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), said it was targeting rural schools in the Eastern Cape to run trials for its plastic laptops that boast a four-hour battery and built-in Wi-Fi.
The group’s leader, Antoine van Gelder, said 15 people in South Africa had already volunteered to make the project a reality.
The project is modelled on the worldwide OLPC – a brainchild of MIT media lab’s Nicholas Negroponte – and supported by the United Nations.
The project has already conducted successful tests in countries such as Nigeria, Argentina, Nepal and Mexico.
Van Gelder said the plastic machines would be hard to break.
“They are waterproof so you can stand in the rain and it won’t be destroyed. The aim is to budget in a way that each child can get a laptop for free.”
Van Gelder said school teachers would be trained so that they can teach the children how to use the laptops.
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