Countries
For demographic and statistical information about the countries see OLPC Country Statistics
This is a page for unofficial notes about OLPC country discussions.
General News
The announced plan calls for five countries to commit to purchase one million units each before production begins. This goal has apparently been achieved. Six are announced, "Currently, official OLPC launch countries include Libya, Argentina, Brazil, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uruguay." There are unfounded rumors in the press about other countries. If you don't see a deal announced on $100 LAPTOP NEWS FOR THE COMMUNITY, it is unlikely to be real.
A two-day meeting was held at OLPC for representatives from the launch countries. This was the first meeting held in the new OLPC office space in Cambridge. The first day's agenda was focused on “learning learning.” Day Two's agenda targeted issues of deployment. In attendance were representatives from Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, and Nigeria. Guests included Clotilde Fonesca from the Omar Dengo Foundation in Costa Rica, Bette Manchester from the Maine Laptop Program, Hal Abelson and Pete Barr-Watson from Creative Commons, and Andres Chisco from Brightstar.
Country News
Romania--No
OLPC News, an independent news site, has noted reports from Romania that the government has rejected the OLPC program. hotnews.ro reports,
House Commission head Lia Olguta Vasilescu said they believed the 700 million euro needed for the procurement of the laptops was too much an amount and would weigh heavily on the Education Ministry budget. Vasilescu also said that "beside that the laptops are simple toys, they’re not even have an expiring date". "We, the Parliament, do not want to support this project because there’s no money" for it."
The quoted figure of 700 million euros does not make sense, since there are only about 2.5 million K-12 students in Romania, according to UNICEF population figures.
Argentina--Yes
Antonio Battro, David Cavallo, and Nicholas spent two days in Argentina working closely with education minister Daniel Filmus, and Alejandro Piscitelli and Laura Serra of educ.ar, the independent government organization coordinating OLPC activities.
Apparently a deal has been made but not announced, going by the press release cited above listing six countries, including Argentina.
OLPC Blog in Argentina in Spanish
Brazil--Yes
The main headline and story on the front page of Friday's edition of Valor, one of the major business newspapers of Brazil, affirmed the government's intention to enter into agreement with OLPC this year. The story highlighted Cezar Alvarez, a top staff member of President Lula, who is in charge of all projects for social and economic inclusion. There were also two other related articles in the Business Section, including a picture of a smiling Prof. Marcelo Zuffo holding a development board and discussing how the work-groups and Brazilian labs intended to build related products and services on top of the platform.
Positivo, a major educational publisher and services company that provides one of the major educational portals demonstrated their adaptation of their portal and content to run on the laptop and within the screen size. They intend to have all their content ready in time for the introduction of the laptop in Brazil.
David Cavallo reports that the Brazilian government is finalizing their plans for all aspects of laptop roll-out. As the project to date has been coordinated by the presidency with the assistance of the Ministry of Education, they will now begin to work more deeply with other ministries.
The presidency has created a new working group inside the Ministry of Education to focus solely on laptops and learning. The group is comprehensive, covering all the necessary departments: basic education; teacher and content development; technology; distance support; and integration and coordination. This group will coordinate all activities needed for the deployment of laptops.
Nicholas and David spent Friday in São Paulo, to meet with President Lula. Rodrigo Mesquita, to whom we owe our presence in Brazil, organized and attended the meeting. Lula publicly reaffirmed Brazil’s commitment to one laptop per child. He expressed a deep connection to those in Brazil that lack opportunity, his belief in the children, and his faith in the importance of connected laptops available to all.
Libya--Yes
OLPC News (2006-10-14) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
Libya and OLPC signed an MOU in which they agreed to work together towards the deployment of one OLPC laptop for every school-age child in Libya and contributing laptops to poor African nations. OLPC will provide the support needed by Libya to plan and carry out such a deployment. The signing took place during a visit by Nicholas, Walter Bender, and Khaled Hassounah, where they met with members of the newly formed OLPC4Libya steering committee. The committee was presented with the outline of a comprehensive plan to distribute the laptops, create connectivity and server infrastructure, and prepare teachers and students. Libya will send a team to the OLPC office in Cambridge to focus on software (Linux), infrastructure, and education content.
Nigeria--Yes
Although we have not seen an announcement of a Nigerian deal, it is listed in an OLPC press release as one of six countries signed up for the laptop.
India--No
3 Jul, 2006 The Times of India reports that the government of India has rejected the OLPC program for now.
Uruguay--Yes
December 14, 2006 President Tabaré Vázquez officially announced his and the country's intention to enter into OLPC and to provide every child in Uruguay with a laptop within two years.
Rwanda--Yes
Kigali, 3 January 2007
Rwanda commits to “one laptop per child” initiative
In recognition of children being Rwanda’s most precious natural resource, the government of Rwanda has committed to provide one laptop per child to all primary school children within five years.
This commitment was confirmed as H.E. President Paul Kagame met with Prof. Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairperson of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) at Urugwiro Village on Tuesday.
USA--Talking
MIT News Office October 5, 2005
Gov. Mitt Romney wants Massachusetts schoolchildren to get the $100 hand-crank laptops developed at the MIT Media Lab.
OLPC Groups
see also: Category:Countries
OLPC China Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, others
OLPC Cyprus Greek, Turkish, English
OLPC Ethiopia Amharic, others
OLPC India 22 official languages, 10 writing systems
OLPC Israel Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, English
OLPC Libya Arabic New York Times story
OLPC New Zealand / Pacific: Maori, English, Samoan, Tongan, Fijian, Cook Island, Pidgin, French
OLPC Nigeria Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo
OLPC Russia Russian, others
OLPC Rwanda English, French
OLPC South Africa English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, others
Extremadura is the poorest region of Spain; it is also the site of the first large-scale deployment of Linux desktop systems in the world, primarily into schools. Over 80,000 desktops have been deployed to date, with near saturation (>50%) in high schools, but fewer numbers in elementary schools (typically in computer labs). The deployment is seen as a success, and is now spreading beyond schools and libraries to the regional government as a whole. Jim visited the project in order to gain insight into the issues that arise in the schools. Although Extremadura's experiences are only partially applicable to ours, they are generally positive.
OLPC USA (see also OLPC4USA) English, Cajun French, Spanish, Native American languages, dozens of immigrant community languages including Vietnamese, Lao, Cambodian, Kreyol Haisyen, etc.