$100 laptops: Nigeria's in, India's out
The Nigerian government says "yes" to $100 laptops. (Although probably more accurate to say that "the check is in the mail".)
Nigeria has officially ordered and paid for one million of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) devices, according to the Nigerian Vanguard newspaper.
India says "no."
The Indian Ministry of Education dismissed the laptop as "pedagogically suspect." Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee said: "We cannot visualise a situation for decades when we can go beyond the pilot stage. We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools."
via TEDBlog. For more commentary, see Ethan on why India's refusal won't kill the project.
Update: Will Brazil, Argentina and Thailand be next to order 1 million computers each? (thanks SocialROI.)
Comments (6)
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I hope Nigeria didn't spend all that money they've been promising me in those emails.
Posted by: Steve | Aug 2, 2006 8:21:11 AM
Wait...Steve, you got those emails too? They promised they were only contacting me!
Posted by: Trish | Aug 2, 2006 9:41:51 AM
Wow, this is interesting. I like that "pedagogically suspect" comment.
Posted by: Ethan Arpi | Aug 2, 2006 5:29:41 PM
Am I wrong, or would one think that Nigeria has better places to be putting their money? As a student, I can say that computers contribute little to my learning when they are not connected to the internet. Is Nigeria going to spend a boatload of precious gov't money on internet connections, too? It sort of sounds like a way to spend more money masked as a good move, when the Nigerian young population needs more.
Posted by: Claire Hann | Aug 14, 2006 9:31:29 PM
Its amazing rationalizing the priorities of Nigerian government.
as a Nigerian, I feel sorry sometimes, that is why I started blogging to contribute to a polity change.
Posted by: Emeka | Aug 23, 2006 12:52:32 PM
Nigeria has upto 150 Million people, so I think, this will help the young people living in Nigeria, but there must be a way to stop the Nigerian Fraud (419), not just bringing more computers to the country at a very cheap rate but also finding a way to stop that 419.
Posted by: Auwal Ismail | Dec 6, 2006 10:38:28 AM