<incom> URUGUAY: Every laptop assigned a child

[Frederick "FN" Noronha]

 From the APC:
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5247132

  Every laptop assigned a child

  MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay -- At present, Uruguay is the only country in the
  world that has adopted, as government policy, Nicholas Negroponte's
  proposal to endow every schoolchild with a low-cost laptop connected
  to the internet. A few other countries, such as Libya, Thailand and
  Rwanda have expressed similar intentions, and others, such as Brazil
  and Argentina, are implementing partial projects. But in Uruguay
  President Tabaré Vázquez wagered heavily, and announced in December
  2006 that by the year 2009, this benefit would be extended to every
  schoolchild without exception.

  A short time ago the hardware acquisition process was speeded up. The
  model chosen is the one originally proposed by Negroponte [1], with a
  GNU/Linux operating system, AMD processor, 256 MB RAM and 512MB
  "flash" storage memory. Each unit will cost $199 dollars.

  [1] Nicholas Negroponte is a computer scientist best known as the
  founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of
  Technology's Media Lab. He is the initiator of the One Laptop Per
  Child (OLPC) project.

  In Uruguay the left governs and does so alone, without alliances and
  on its own merits (or perhaps due to the demerits of the other
  political forces). In the mix of circumstances that produced the
  left's electoral victory, we find the country's president, Dr. Tabaré
  Vázquez, accepted by all sectors of the left, and more importantly,
  respected and tolerated by the entire political spectrum. Dr. Vázquez
  has an inclination towards Jacobin gestures and drastic and unilateral
  decisions. One of these decisions set the OLPC project rolling, which
  in Uruguay is called the Basic Computer Educational Connectivity for
  Online Learning Plan (CEIBAL - Conectividad Educativa de Informática
  Básica para el Aprendizaje en Línea), a play on words which attempts
  to evoke Uruguay's national tree (ceibal is a ceiba forest, Erythrina
  cristagalli).

  In the launch speech, and in his typical way of presenting a fait
  accompli, the president declared, "you don't know how happy, how
  proud, how spiritually comforted I feel at this time as we
  propose—that is, as we inform the nation—of the launch of this
  programme." No one doubts that this president is truly in command.
  That's why Negroponte's vision became government policy, or rather
  this administration's policy -since no one knows for sure if the
  project will continue after Vázquez leaves the presidency (there are
  no second terms in Uruguay).

  The CEIBAL Plan in Uruguay

  The Ceibal Plan is a well-intentioned project which, if handled
  cautiously, could improve primary education in some areas, especially
  in rural sectors, small towns and cities, which is precisely the
  setting used in the experimental phase. In other words, under ideal
  conditions.

  With uncommon speed, a pilot project was carried out in a small
  locality in the countryside, a town called Cardal, which quickly drew
  not only local but also international press attention. The fact is
  that today it is extremely difficult to interview those who took part,
  and Cardal has become "guarded territory" in order to, or as an
  excuse, safeguard the peace of the school and its educational task.

  Several committees have been set up to implement the project. I was
  able to interview a member of one of them from the "Education
  Committee," who preferred to remain anonymous. The government's
  restriction on information about the Ceibal Plan is curious: the
  agency in charge of the technical application is the one granting
  interviews.

  The source interviewed stated that there is no policy affecting
  educational matters and that teachers are free to use the technology
  in any way they wish or are able to.

  According to the source, the first 100,000 laptops should be delivered
  and operating in three mostly rural departments (provinces)—Florida,
  Flores and Colonia—by the end of 2007. Apparently no one thinks this
  will take place since the contract for model XO was only just granted
  in late September and teachers are only now being trained. Serious
  questions also arise regarding the feasibility of full implementation
  of the project, since sophisticated techniques of wireless connection
  and encoding are required. Children can take the machines home, but
  their connectivity is limited to the immediate surroundings of their
  school—they cannot be moved from one school to another. In Cardal's
  case, only 30 machines out of the 150 provided can be online at the
  same time, and antennas had to be installed in several places around
  town. Although laptops are supposed to be signal repeaters, this has
  yet to be seen.

  Costs and benefits of a closed system

  When the final tally is made, the total cost of the project will equal
  almost 10% annually, for two years, of the government's total budget
  for education. The ratio is much greater when seen as a percentage of
  what is assigned to primary education, perhaps around 25% annually,
  for two years. It is no coincidence that some teachers' groups have
  publicly expressed their objections.

  The total absence of critical views on this initiative is very
  strange. Who would dare to criticise such an ostensibly "positive"
  proposal without paying a political cost? In a country where the
  political opposition deems every action by the government disastrous,
  not one voice from any sector has critically analysed this initiative.
  Teachers' objections have been patently ignored, even of those
  directly involved in the project. Significantly, no one asks
  themselves or questions the government about the source of the funds
  that will finance the project, which are sizable for a country like
  Uruguay. In late 2006 the teachers' unions and the University of the
  Republic (which is autonomous although it fully depends on public
  funds) led a bitter fight which saw the economy minister totter, over
  the appropriation of an additional 30 million dollars for the entire
  education sector. A pittance compared to the more than one hundred
  million needed to fulfil the president's vision for the CEIBAL
  project.

  Many people think that a laptop for every child is a magic solution
  and that just giving the children a machine will make them happy. From
  that angle, it may even seem to be an inexpensive fix, but few people
  other than the teachers directly involved ask themselves about the
  origin of the funds necessary for its initial implementation, and even
  less about the recurring costs in years to come. Many teachers also
  ask themselves if those funds would not be more wisely used to fill
  some of the enormous deficiencies in Uruguay's educational sector,
  starting with their own salaries.

  Author: --- (Miguel Peirano for APCNews)
  Contact:
  Source: APCNews
  Date: 10/16/2007
  Location: MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay
  Category: Development Resources

  --
  Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph +91-832-2409490
  12000+ downloadable, sharable hi-res photos 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/
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