One Laptop Per Child’ Associated Press
BANGKOK, Aug. 13: Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
has announced that an ambitious project to provide low-cost laptop computers to all of Thailand’s millions of
elementary school students will begin in October.
The US-based “One Laptop per Child” project aims to deliver up to 30 computers to Thailand in October and 500 more in November, Mr Thaksin said in a nationwide radio broadcast yesterday.
“If this project is completed, each elementary school child will receive a computer to learn on at school,” Thaksin said.
“Each elementary school child will receive a computer that the
government will buy for them, free of charge, instead of books, because books will be found and can be read on computers,” he said.
He said the first batch of laptops ~ costing around USD100 each ~ will be distributed to children in rural areas where access to technology is limited. Those children will test the computers before the government proceeds with the project nationwide. The laptops are not yet in production.
The Thai government adopted the project a year ago after Mr Thaksin met the “One Laptop Per Child” project’s founder Mr Nicholas Negroponte, the state Thai News Agency reported today.
Some critics say the project misallocates resources and that governments in developing countries would do better to invest in providing for more basic needs. Other countries that have shown interest in the project ~ which has been endorsed by the United Nations ~ include China and Brazil, Mr Thaksin said.