OLPC talking to rich nations to sponsor the laptops for poor nations

OLPC talking to rich nations to sponsor the laptops for poor nations

Professor Nicholas Negroponte, head of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project has said that they are conducting talks with several developed and rich nations for their USD 100 laptop project.

They won’t be selling the laptops to these countries but are expecting them to finance the project in developing nations around the world.

Negroponte said that they are talking to Finland, which might sponsor the project to deliver laptops to Namibia. UAE is considering joining the program to supply these laptops to Pakistan. And France is also considering sponsoring laptops for French-speaking African countries.

He further said on this project: “It’s an education project not a laptop project. For people it’s like the hazard of being a beautiful blonde – people pay attention to the wrong thing. It’s almost an attractive nuisance. We were driven by the elimination of poverty. With building more schools, it would take forever and ever. What we’re trying to do in the meantime is get more children to do more on their own.”

It is unfortunate that leaders in India have rejected participating in the idea saying that the money invested in the $100 pieces of hardware would be better off spent on more traditional education materials.