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OLPC Accuses Politicians of Stifling Laptop Scheme
Wed, 05 Dec 2007
The One Laptop per Child scheme has accused politicians of lessening the impact of the programme and harming the scheme. Walter Bender, OLPC spokesman, claimed that politicians were afraid of the risk incurred by committing to the scheme. Bender also is reported to have claimed that there has been a "concerted misinformation campaign" designed to undermine the scheme, though his comments that the laptops are required to improve the standard of education in the relevant developing countries have not found favour amongst ministers in the respective countries.

The Indian Education Secretary, Sudeep Banerjee, has states that the country is in more urgent need of teachers and classrooms rather than laptops, whilst Nigeria’s Education Minister, Dr Igwe Aja-Nwachuku, has spoken along similar lines, questioning the donation of laptops when the basic facilities available to the children are so poor.

The OLPC scheme has incurred many problems since its creation in 2002, with the spiralling cost of the laptops and reported lack of interest two of the major problems faced. Although originally planned to cost $100 each, the laptops are now estimated to cost $188 apiece, causing scepticism as to the feasibility of the project. Meanwhile, there have been reports of a lack of interest from the governments of the relevant countries – suggestions supported by Dr Aja-Nwachuku’s revelation that he is considering schemes from Microsoft and Intel as well as that of OLPC.

However, several countries have placed orders in recent times, with Uruguay providing the first confirmed order, though there have been reports of interst from Libya, Thailand and Pakistan amongst others.