How many countries are really participating in One Laptop Per Child? Do you know? Does Nicholas Negroponte know? I only know that the definition of “participation” is rather loose right about now.
On one end of the spectrum, we have Australia, where two laptops somehow mean a pilot. On another end we have Pakistan, a country that really has need as Farrukh Ansari says in an OLPC News comment:
Could anyone tell me that how i can get this laptop for my kids, they are keen to use it, but as i live in Karachi, Pakistan, how i can get it. Please, someone help me to find the way to get it.
Well Nicholas Negroponte says Farrukh will soon be in luck:
We are talking to the Philippines and Pakistan – I’m convinced that’s going to happen.
Dr. Negroponte has reason for optimism. He has the commitment of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shaukat Aziz. According to an APP news article from November 29, 2006:
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Wednesday the government will consider the feasibility for making low-cost laptop computers available to school going children in Pakistan.
He was talking to Nicholas Negroponte, who is the head of the MIT Media Laboratory and Chairman of a non-profit organization called One-Laptop-Per-Child (OLPC), which promotes the production of laptops for children at low rates.
The Prime Minister asked the Ministry of IT and Telecom to form a committee to look into the feasibility of such an initiative.
Aneeqa Ishaq
uzairsukhera
ICTs, Education & Entrepreneurship 