OLPC Papua New Guinea
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Overview
SPC 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 recent announcements from the government embracing OLPC, OLPC is looking to convene a Partners Group Roundtable seminar in Port Moresby in late January 2009.
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:
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 will self fund a programme of up to 11 schools, including Kisap (Western Highlands), schools in North Fly (Western Province) and Telefomin district north of the OK Tedi mining area. They are putting PGK 1m (USD 350,000) of community development funds held in trust into the project, which will start in early 2009.
Early indications and feedback
Click here for feedback from Gaire and Dreikikir, November 2008
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)
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
Photo Gallery
Click any picture to enlarge:
Latest
These pictures taken in November 2008