Dear Editor,
The idea for OLPF was first started by an American engineer and entrepreneur who went to poor third world countries (Rwanda, Ecuador) and demonstrated how his cheap prototype computer costing US$100 could improve learning opportunities for kids in undeveloped societies. I have seen these things on TV: kids 6-10 years old walking along dusty roads with their cheap laptops; kids’ pulling up pictures and dictionaries on their laptops in the classroom. Do we know the benefits of these programmes? Has any study been done?
In Guyana president Jagdeo’s much touted OLPF programme is costing US$30,000,000 which is 4 percent of Guyana’s annual budget. This is real money. To borrow Jagdeo’s favourite phrase: “Are we getting the best bang for the buck?”
I have seen pictures of President Jagdeo handing out laptops to school children on the front pages of Guyana’s newspapers. The OLPF programme calls for 90,000 laptops to be given out. The pictures look great. But what are the benefits to the nation for such a significant expenditure?
By all estimates the life of these laptops will be less than 3-years. Many will be damaged through lack of training on how to use them; many will be sold for bread or cooking oil; many will be stolen. It is still unclear whether learning will be enhanced at all in the specific manner in which this programme is designed and implemented.
In NYC it costs US$90,000 to set up a classroom of 35 desktop computers. This cost includes 5-years warranty and all the software. These computer labs provide 10-15 years service before they are junked and replaced. Labour and warranty cost in New York are expensive (minimum daily wage with benefits is at least US$150). I would estimate that in Guyana a comparable lab can be set up for a cost of US$40,000.
Thirty million dollars will provide 750 classroom labs; one for each High School in the country. How many high schools are there in Guyana? If we have fewer than 500 high schools we can put back US$10 million in the national treasury or spend it on the
University. Establish a unit at the university to set up the labs and to provide warranty service and training for teachers in all the high schools.
These labs will last 10-15 years. The laptops in the OLPF conception will all be broken and/or disappear in three years.
De facto Prime Minister Roger Luncheon talks about how this OLPF programme will transform the nation. It is difficult to imagine how 90,000 laptops will transform the nation. On the other hand, a lab comprising of desktop computers that will be available to all students of a school and that are guaranteed to last 10-15 years is
easy to visualize as potentially transforming. Of course an ICT, Information and Communication Technology Curriculum, must be developed and integrated into the general H.S. curriculum.
Equipping every HS in the country with a lab of 35-computers will cost less than the proposed US$30,000,000 for the OLPF programme. And, the current generation of High School kids will graduate with industry-wide recognized computer certificates.
I urge the parliamentary leaders to call for a debate on the pros and cons of the OLPF programme. I urge Headmasters/Headmistresses and high school students as well as administrators of the University of Guyana to petition the government to reconsider the wisdom and efficacy of the OLPF. Thirty million US dollars is real money. Spend it wisely.
Note: (1) The University of Guyana has a very good programme and graduates outstanding students in Computer science each year. Elizabeth Singh (U.G. graduate 2000) is one such student. She now lives in NYC and had been my coach for many computer certification exams I had taken and passed. She tells me that U.G. has the necessary skilled personnel to set up and service the labs.
(2) NYC’s Dept of Education had made the computer labs in John Adams HS and P.S. 65 (Queens, NY) available to adults and parents to teach basic computer skills leading up to MOS certifications (Word, Excel, PPoint, Access). Ninety percent of the students in these Saturday classes are of Guyanese and Trinidadian background.
Computer labs set up in High Schools in Guyana can also perform double duty and be made available to parents and adults throughout Guyana. That will make this programme truly “transformative” – and all for less than US$30,000,000.
Yours faithfully,
Mike Persaud
