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70 free laptops recalled from Cook Islands

Jun 16, 2009 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX)

70 laptops earmarked for outer island schools in Cook Islands have been recalled. The wait for a consultants report on information communications technology has stopped the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project for Mitiaro from going ahead. The plan had been for Mitiaro school students to receive about 70 of the colourful laptops last year. Now the Ministry of Education is being asked by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community in New Caledonia to return the laptops after it failed to distribute them. Secretary John Herrmann is tight-lipped on what happened to the project, other than that the ministry was waiting for the recommendations of an ICT policy report before doing anything with the computers.

Last December Herrmann told Cook Islands News the Mitiaro project had been put on hold pending a cost benefit analysis of the plan. Herrmann confirmed last week he had received a letter from the SPC questioning why the laptops were never sent to Mitiaro. The worldwide initiative for the special laptops which cost around US$100 each was developed by the American-based OLPC social welfare organisation.

The computers were designed specially for distribution to children in developing countries around the world to provide them with access to knowledge. About 100,000 of them were purchased for the Pacific region by a financier and given to the SPC to distribute to poor communities in the region. Some went to Papua New Guinea and Kiribati.

The rugged, low-power computers contain flash memory instead of a hard drive. They use only five watts of power, run for about four hours, take one-and-a-half hours to charge off power mains or by solar, and connect with other laptops through a wireless system which is set up in the classroom.

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Comment by Marlie Rota on June 22, 2009 at 10:38am: This is Ian Thompson's response to this article:

I just wanted everyone to know that SPC fully supports the decision process of the Cook Islands Ministry of Education.
The OLPC Program must be integrated with the existing policy and education improvement plans

As there are no plans to deploy the laptops that were left with them about 12 months ago, we have asked to reallocate them to a country that is ready to use them.
We will support a Cooks OLPC project when they are ready to commence.

Ian Thomson
RICS and OLPC Coordinator
Noumea
SPC