Comments on: India Rejects Laptops for Children

By: infs

infs — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:16:46 +0000

It probably wouldn’t hurt them too badly to try and help with both the necessary and the extras.

By: Alok Kadam

Alok Kadam — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 07:46:38 +0000

Well, Let’s just be a little more frank and try and make sense of this OLPC thing when it comes to India. Firstly, Don’t we require English to use a computer? That’s the first hurdle, Secondly don’t we require it to be mandatory for all kids to go to school. And thirdly for a country in which a family would rather send their kids to earn a daily wage don’t you think a laptop would just be a resource to be traded in and money mispent is a waste….. Which countries which have solved the first three problems are more than welcome to Enroll under the OLPC but as far as India is concerned, no prejudices but we can’t afford to send a mason to the moon in a shuttle worth over a billion dollars ….. the try would be futile….. unless the Indian corporates really want the MNC’s to bag more money and fill their own vaults with more cash.
Sorry to be such a pessimist but the fact still lies, I’m Indian and I’ve learnt it the hard way , people no doubt colorful and plenty but equally irrisponsible and illeterate (Intellectually) so it’s wouldn’t be the wisest thing for india to really get into stuff like this till it doesn’t solve the three basic problems… luckily the education ministry does have sane people running it, irrelevant of whether the MNC’s weren’t able to buy them off or they sincerely declined on logical chain of thought to decline or reject the OLPC thing. I guess it was a wise decision.

By: Hsien-Hsien Lei

Hsien-Hsien Lei — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 13:46:26 +0000

wayan: Ooooh. Scandal. Thanks for the link!

By: wayan

wayan — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 04:55:24 +0000

I say there is more to the India rejection backstory than told in the news. One angle: MIT Media Lab Asia was such a disaster that India doesn’t trust MIT anymore: http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/countries/india_rejection_back.html

By: Hsien-Hsien Lei

Hsien-Hsien Lei — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 19:45:18 +0000

Kailani: Anything new is generally fun!

By: Kailani

Kailani — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 20:49:17 +0000

When I purchase gifts for kids, I usually look at the family first. If it’s for a family who I know is struggling, then I try to get something more practical and useful. Practical can also be fun, too!

Here via Carnival of Family Life.

By: Hsien-Hsien Lei

Hsien-Hsien Lei — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 18:00:11 +0000

Samat: Thanks for coming back and telling us more about the OLPC laptop. I admit to not having read all of the information available on it. If I had an unlimited budget, you can bet that I’d be buying laptops for every child and adult I know.

By: Samat Jain

Samat Jain — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 17:45:43 +0000

Made a reply to your comment on my site, which I’m posting here:

I’m not sure whether the elite rich and businesses would foot the bill; if India’s rich are anything like those in the United States, they tend to not help the poor unless they are involved in something like a disaster.

The point I don’t think I made clear in my original blog post with the $100 laptop being a tool: the monies spent on classrooms and teachers are not the same as those spent on supplies. If more money was spent on classrooms and teachers, would they not buy textbooks for that year?

There are a lot of people who don’t have something to eat and a place to sleep, but there are even more who do. The lower middle-class is huge, often-forgotten part of society, who just don’t have the money to purchase a normal PC. And if they did, what would they do with it?

A thing that a lot of press ignores about the OLPC $100 laptop is that it’s not just hardware, it’s content and software as well, a complete electronic learning platform–this is not stuff you’d get without spending thousands of dollars or a huge amount of time if you just went down to your local compuer store. The OLPC $100 laptop could be considered more a “gadget,” it’s designed to perform a specific task and run specific software very well. It’s not meant to be used the same way as conventional laptops in industrialized countries use them, which is probably why industrialized countries at this point are not a target for the device.

By: Hsien-Hsien Lei

Hsien-Hsien Lei — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 14:45:25 +0000

Kerri: I suppose my comparison of birthday gifts vs laptops is a little bit off. Over at Samat’s blog, I came up with the idea of businesses and individuals buying the laptops for kids and letting the government pay for basics.

Samat: Thanks for the comment. I’ve commented at yours too. The trouble is that money isn’t unlimited so difficult choices have to be made.

By: Samat Jain

Samat Jain — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 06:14:40 +0000

I've made some India's rejection of the $100 laptop on my weblog. The $100 laptop is meant to be a tool, no different than a textbook or a pencil. A better textbook or a pencil. Having families decide whether they want they want the $100 laptop is like asking whether they want their children to have a better education or not.