One Laptop per Child! Hugh....

"One Laptop per Child", sounds good.(Especially to someone like me, who doesnot have a laptop and constatly nagging my daddy to get me one! )So, here is the chance for me to get one. What ? Is it free? It's for children? Oops, I missed my 18th birthday a year ago.Alas!

Well,this scheme is not for us 'grownups'. It's for our kids, "our future".Now, why is the project emphasising on giving laptop to children, when we discourage them to carry even the cellphones with them? The reason is simple, (Stop running your grey cells!) We want them to learn with the world. Allright, enough bouncers!
Let's go to the point,
It is MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte's "One Laptop Per Child scheme "- which aims to provide kids in developing countries with a simple $100 machine.
Now why is such a scheme?
The statics claim that, nearly two–billion children in the developing world are inadequately educated, or receive no education at all. One in three does not complete the fifth grade.Since, India is one of these countries, the situation demands immediate attention.

As taken from the reliable sources, the Mission Statement is: To create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.

The second thing is Is it feasible ? or Is the Investment in project worth it?

The resources that developing countries c allocate to education is less than $20 per year per pupil, compared to the approximately $7500 per pupil spent annually in the U.S. An incremental increase of building schools, hiring teachers, buying books and equipment—is an insufficient response to the problem of bringing true learning possibilities to the vast numbers of children in the developing world.

But Indian Govt. seems to be unaffected with the conviction. It clearly rejected the idea. 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 beyone the pilot stage. We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools."
But, this project still not longed to be abated. Reliance ADG group welcomed the project with open arms. MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte thinks that recruiting Reliance and other allies may overcome New Delhi's lingering reluctance toward technology spending in primary education.

Well, I personally believe, that the govenment should not take a back when it comes to exploring new teaching concepts. Maybe, they can do one thing, that instead of giving everychild a laptop, they can build community education centres, wherin children can come and access the learning facility through these tool. Just like, we have Internet cyber cafes in India. What say?

To conclude, I would like to share this qoute,
" 'We need a metamorphosis of education - from the cocoon a butterfly should emerge. Improvement does not give us a butterfly, only a faster caterpillar."