OLPC Papua New Guinea

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Overview

Secretariat of the Pacific Community and OLPC in PNG are partnering in a testing and pilot phase with various actors ranging from government to the faith-based education system working on several projects. Following announcements from the national government in 2008 embracing OLPC, pilots have been established in three provinces and the Department of Education has formed a strategic partnership with Divine Word university to support OLPC projects in the non-government sector.

PNG Sustainable Development Program has also partnered with church run primary schools in the northern area of Western Province at Kiunga (Callan Services for the Disabled), Rumginae, Matkomnai, Dome, Kungim, Yenkenai, Tapko and Finalbin in providing the laptops and school wireless networks. They are also assisting, with support from Divine Word Univerity, establish the program in the Jim Taylor Primary School at Kisap in the Western Highlands and 3 Baptist Church run schools near Oksapmin in the West Sepik (Sandaun) Province. PNGSDP establisehd the Jim Taylor Primary School as a model for a total solar solution providing equipment which is totally solar powered. The school's solar powered wireless network allows teachers and students within a 500 metre radius of the school grounds to access the server at any time.

Key links

• OLPC PNG website
• OLPC Oceania blog
• PNG adopts OLPC to 'transform the country'
• SPEECH by Dr Joseph Pagelio, Papua New Guinea Secretary for Education, to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly*, Port Moresby, 25 November 2008

Trials in PNG

Deployments in PNG, facilited by SPC, commenced in June 2008 at the following sites:

• Gaire, Central Province
• Dreikikir, East Sepik Province

Two classes of one grade (Grade 3) plus teachers received the laptops and some training in June 2008. In November we finally got back to the schools to make immediate plans to complete the rest of the grades and teachers, and conduct more training. This was also an opportunity to get some good feedback on how the children and teachers were progressing, notwithstanding the need for more training. A report will be posted here in early Dec.

Click any picture to enlarge:

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  Location of PNG

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  Location of Gaire

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  Location of Drekikir

These schools are planned but no progress yet as of Nov 2008:

• Buka, Bougainville Province
• St Peters, a large primary school in Port Moresby

PNG Sustainable Development Program Limited is funding a programme involving 13 schools, including Kisap (Western Highlands), 8 schools in North Fly (Western Province) and 3 in the Telefomin (Oksapmin)district north of the OK Tedi mining area. They have committed PGK 1m (USD 350,000) of community development funds held in trust into the project, which commenced in early 2009. Completion of the installations is expected by June 2011 with at least one grade and all teachers in each school equipped with the XO laptops.

Early indications and feedback

Click here for feedback from Gaire and Dreikikir, November 2008

Students in Gaire Primary School are awaitiing the rest of the laptops to be delivered to them. Currently, only the Grade Three students were given the laptops.

We understand that the rest of the laptops arrive in the country late last year and are stored in Don Bosco College in Port Moresby.

== We were informed by Mr. Monie from PNG Dept of Education that the students would receive them in December.

IT IS NOW MARCH 2009 AND THE STUDENTS AND PARENTS ARE STILL WAITING!!!! WHAT IS GOING ON? CAN ANYONE SHED LIGHT ON THIS? ==

EU withdrew funds earmarked for education were withrawn because they were not utilized by the Education Dept, is the same thing happening here?@!

'WE MUST NOT WASTE ANY MORE TIME>>>>>> LET US PUT OUR CHILDREN INTO THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION !!!!'Bold text Italic text

Contacts

• Dr Joseph Pagelio, Secretary, Department of Education, PO Box 446, Waigani NCD Phone: 301 3447 Fax: 323 1031
• Brian Gaius Monie, Senior Policy Development Officer, Dept of Education (email: brian_monie AT educationpng.gov.pg or bgm0077 AT gmail.com)
• David Leeming, OLPC Coordinator, Secretariat of the Pacific Community
• Ian Thomson, RICS and OLPC Project Manager, Secretariat of the Pacific Community
• Michael Hutak, Director, OLPC Oceania, +61 412 001 052

Content and Localisation

Localization projects have been opened on the OLPC Pootle server for Tok Pisin language (PNG Pidgin)

• Wikipedia Tok Pisin link

News

PNG adopts One Laptop Per Child initiative (Nov 2008)

One laptop per child concept accepted by PNG

The Prime Minister of Papua Niugini has accepted the One Laptop per Child project for the children of his children. This was announced on Radio Pacific News on Tuesday morning and according to his statement, the OLPC project will be rolled out over several years at a cost of several million dollars. He also noted that Niue is already taking part in the OLPC (one laptop per child) project for all 500 of their school children.

Youtube Video

Youtube of Dreikikir deployment

Gaire

Gaire is located about 45 minutes drive from Port Moresby. It is the site of a rural community VSAT access point, set up under the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC)'s Pacific Rural Internet Connectivity System (Pacific RICS) project. Gaire Primary School is located at 9.6698S, 147.4086E (WGS84), sea level.

June 13th 2008: 53 laptops distributed to both streams of the Grade 3 saturated (Grade 3 is the first grade in the PNG primary education system).

None of the children have any experience of computers before. Of the teachers, only the Principal and one or two others are computer literate.

See latest photos!

Dreikikir

Dreikikir Admin Primary School is located in East Sepik Province, near Wewak. This school is participating in the EU-funded Improvement of Rural Primary Education Facilities (IRPEF) project, based in Madang. The IRPEF is collaborating with the Department of Education and OLPC Oceania to implement the trial.

Dreikikir is located at 3.57516S, 142.76946E at altitude 380m.

Report for the Dreikikir trial deployment

This trial was started between 16th - 20th June 2008.

View the report by clicking here

Web resources for Dreikikir

Official website of the Ambunti-Dreikikir Electorate, Hon. Tony Aimo MP: [1]

Some pictures of the Drekikir region can be seen here: [2]

Other Resources for Dreikikir

Download Dreikikir data Spreadsheet of teachers and students names and positions with serial numbers of laptops. (ods format for Open Office)

Two videos were made of the deployment (300MB each). Contact Ian or David.

Useful links for PNG

• Wikipedia Papua New Guinea link

Photo Gallery

Click any picture to enlarge:

Latest

These pictures taken in November 2008

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  Gaire: Training students and teachers for a demonstration at Parliament

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  Gaire: Training students and teachers for a demonstration at Parliament

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  Don Bosco Technology Institute (DBTI): David awarding training certificates to DBTI staff

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  SPC's David Leeming training DBTI staff

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  DBTI: trained staff with certificates

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  Yenkena Primary school (North Fly) teachers and students first look at the XO. Remote area in Western Province

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  Rain forest around remote Yenkena school extends for 100s of km in all directions

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  Kisap School, Banz, W. Highlands: PNGSDP Director Lawrence Stephens with teachers

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  Kisap School, Banz, W. Highlands

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  Dreikikir: students with examples of materials they have printed from XO photos

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  Dreikikir: Graduation photos taken on the XOs and printed

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  Local language PDF readers produced by primary school teachers and published for the XO by the SIL people

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  More locally produced content

Initial deployment June 2008

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  Gaire: Each child receives an XO

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  Gaire: Opening the laptops

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  Discovery.....(Gaire)

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  Gaire: Within the first hour, there is much activity...

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  Gaire: Memorise activity

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  Gaire: Teachers training

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  Teachers of Gaire Primary School

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  Dreikikir Admin Primary School

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  Two Guardians of Dreikikir Admin Primary School

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  Dreikikir: Two girls absorbed by the XO

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  Dreikikir: Training in groups outside

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  Dreikikir: Boys using Paint, Speak and Record during training

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  Dreikikir: Training in the classroom

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  Dreikikir: Teacher Training

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  Dreikikir: Teacher Training

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  Dreikikir: Minister arriving for the official launching

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  Dreikikir: Education Minister and MP for Ambunti-Dreikikir, Hon. Tony Aimo arriving for the official launching

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  Dreikikir: Brian Gaius Monie, Senior Policy Development Officer, Dept of Education speaking at the hand-over ceremony

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  Dreikikir: Joseph Ouyoumb, Provincial Education Advisor, East Sepik

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  Dreikikir: Chris Sangisi, Standard Officer, Dreikikir District

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  Dreikikir: People from the Dreikikir community at the hand-over ceremony

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  Dreikikir: Handing over laptops to Grade 3 students

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  Dreikikir: Handing over laptops to Grade 3 students

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  Dreikikir: Got laptops!

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  Dreikikir: Dancing at the official opening

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  Dreikikir: Dancing at the hand over ceremony

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  Dreikikir: Puppet dancing show at the hand over ceremony

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  Dreikikir: Welcome to the hand over ceremony

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Primary Language	,|x|Language spoken::x}}
Number of Laptops	Number of manufactured laptops::100
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}}
Pilot Status	Pilot status::