OLPC Ghana

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News

Annan and Jeff Sachs visiting with students at the school

January 2010: Kofi Annan visits the XO school in the Bonsaaso Millennium Village in Ghana.

Large-Scale Deployment

Ghana has signed an agreement with OLPC to purchase 10,000 XOs, scheduled for delivery in 2009. This is following an initial pilot of 100 laptops (more info below). The initiative to develop the capacity of Ghanaian youth is a primary concern to the President of Ghana. Ghana’s 2007 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana (Page 299, Paragraph 1310), indicates that Government will enhance the usage of computers in schools. The Ministry of Education, Science and Sports collaborating with Ministry of Communication has been tasked to oversee the implementation of this program.

The Baah-Wiredu Laptop per Child Foundation (named for the late finance minister who championed OLPC) is coordinating the deployment. The Foundation was given a mandate by outgoing President Kufuor to find funding for a million XOs in 2009. The Foundation and core team members are now preparing for the arrival of the machines.

First Phase Launch Schools

We have two pilot in Ghana, of about 40 laptops each. One in the capitol city of Accra, in a public school 4th grade classroom. This deployment has a server but no internet access. The other is in a rural village, Bonsaso, which by the way has no electricity (in the village, not just the school). For that deployment, individual solar panels were given to the students. At this writing, the rural deployment does not yet have a server or internet - we are waiting for a low-power server to be shipped.

Gallery

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December Ghana Planning Workshop, 2008

For the week of December 14, 2008 the Ghanaian core team visited OLPC headquarters in Cambridge, MA to plan for the deployment of 10,000 XO laptops.

Ms. Agatha Gaisie-Nketsiah and Mr. Maxwell Akornor presented on the Baah-Wiredu Laptop Foundation, named in honor of the late Minister of Finance & Economic Planning, the current state of education in Ghana and also experiences from the first phase launch.

The BWL Foundation (Microsoft-Powerpoint Presentation)

OLPC in Ghana (Microsoft-Powerpoint Presentation

OLPC employees who presented included:

Richard Smith, Director of Embedded Engineering: Laptop Power

Robert Fadel, Vice President of International Operations: Current Initiatives

Ed McNeirney, Vice President of Software Development: Software

Reuben Caron, Country Techincal Support Engineer: Country Technical Support

John Watlington, Vice President of Hardware Advancement: Hardware

Smaller Independent Deployments

Here are some smaller independent deployments by other organizations, not part of the official OLPC larger scale government deployments.

• Accra (OLPCorps_Ashesi_University_Ghana.)
• Agogo (outside of Kumasi) (University of Education, Winneba - Kumasi)
• Axim (WHH Children's Home) (Ghana Together, http://ghanatogether.org Donate XOs)
• Volta Region (Southeast corner) (OLPCorps_Dickinson_Ghana)
• Eastern Region (north of Accra) (OLPCorps_CUNY_Baruch_Ghana)

Reports/Papers

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project and Its Applicability to Ghana Report

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Primary Language	,|x|Language spoken::x}}
Number of Laptops	Number of manufactured laptops::1100
Keyboard Layout	Keyboard::OLPC English Keyboard
Build	,|x|Software release::x}}
Date(s) Arrived in Country	,|x|Has received laptops on date::x}}
School Server	,|x|School server status::x}}
Deployment Status	Deployment status::Stalled on government politics (corruption charges), despite the agreement.