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From Nigeria to Philippines passing by Uruguay and Peru more than 2.5 millions of poor children
around the world have incorporated a small laptop to their school life.
These are part of the One Laptop per Child project propelled by american researchers.
Latin America is the region which most passionately has embraced this programme,
which aims to aid the education of children with no resources.
About 80% of the laptops were distributed in Latin America and particularly in two countries:
Uruguay, where it covers all primary education, and Peru, where rural schools were appointed.
The results are, however, ambivalent. Uruguay is the only country in the world
where the programme was implemented at a national level with great success.
The so called Plan Ceibal has distributed 570.000 "ceibalitas", as the laptops are called, to all primary students.
The difference between the country's richer 20% and the poorest 20% who do not have a computer is nearly inexistent.
Nowadays there are nearly 250.000 children who do not need to walk more than 300 meters to have free internet.
Nowadays 99% of students have access to internet in their study place.
Nowadays we already have fiber optic in 650 government funded schools.
Teachers are satisfied with the experience.
There are several games which increases students' motivation.
Children want to do certain activities, through which teachers can explain concepts
that students sometimes cannot understand when the concrete resources available in classroom are used.
Specialists affirm that Plan Ceibal with make the difference when these Uruguayan children
are incorporated by the labour market.
The surprise to the world that a country like Uruguay will promote within 10 years will be unequal.
The most important educational lab in the world nowadays is called Uruguay.
It is more important then Finland, more important then Singapore,
more important then anyone.
This optimism, however, is not shared by some experts who carried out a broad assessment in Peru.
The results of the OLPC there have been disappointing.
A study carried out by the IDB warned that the distribution of computers had no impact in learning.
At least until the present moment.
We found that there were no impact on the learning of Maths and Language.
Therefore there is obviously room for improvement.
Regarding this we think that the best chance we have
to generate positive impact on Maths and Language
is to complement these investments on hardware with the development of resources
and teacher professional development.
According to the IDB study there is no evidence of improvement on students' basic knowledge,
like Maths and Language.
There is no difference between students who took part in the programme and those who did not.
Here in Peru there is the need to develop complementary actions
so that the laptops can actually be better used.
And also not forget that here the star is the teacher. Technology will not change this.
Teachers are the ones who will build the foundations for success.
Teachers are an essential piece and we need to support then in this process.
The programme critics believe poor countries should dedicate the resources to build schools,
train teachers and distribute books to children instead of using the funds to buy laptops.
From the point of view of an African government, for example, the cost is very important.
Specially because this laptop costs US$200. If you think that in Africa the expense with
each primary student per year is around US$50 we are talking about a very important inversion.
Those responsible for the OLPC consider it is too early to assess its results.
When someone installed electricity in schools, in three years they had electricity.
They were asked how electricity impacted teaching in schools.
They asked how education was impacted by piped water. This is a very long process.
It starts this way. Most of those who interview me have computers.
As the IDB study has shown, one laptop is not a magic wand to improve teaching.
Investment and teachers will continue to be the key to children education in the 21st century.