The One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) programme has moved to a “critical phase” with application forms for the much-vaunted project available from today.
In this phase, the Project Unit will aggressively interact with the public, a press release on the project said. It said that the Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs) and the general offices of the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven (Bartica only) and Ten will make the forms and accompanying pre-paid, pre-addressed envelopes available to the public from today.
The release said that while every Guyanese could access the document, the eligibility criteria for the first phase (2011) caters for single parents, the differently-abled and other persons who are considered members of low-income families. “Persons seeking to register their families for consideration are advised that the forms, available at the RDCs and NDCs, are the only documents to be used when applying, and should not be duplicated or paid for under any circumstances,” the release said.
A sample of the application form was published in the Sunday Chronicle and persons will have to say whether they are single parents or differently-abled and identify the disability. Persons will also have to say whether there is more than one house on the lot and specify which one they live in as well as state the number of family members living together as a single household, the number of persons from the household committing to the OLPF training programme as well as the combined monthly family income. Additionally, the applicant – if employed – will have to give details on their employer.
Single parents will have to commit to ten hours of community service while others will have to give 20 hours of community service.
The release said that completed forms must be returned to the OLPF Central Office on or before May 31, using the prepaid, pre-addressed envelopes provided with the forms, or the normal mailing system, addressed to OLPF CENTRAL OFFICE, 161 Lamaha Street, North Cummingsburg, Georgetown. Applicants could also opt to deliver in person or complete the form electronically at olpf.gov.gy.
The release noted that the OLPF programme is an initiative of the Office of the President, which seeks to “empower poor and working-class Guyanese with the modern means of enabling an enhancement of their education, livelihood and personal ambitions, through the use of computer technology and access to the Internet”.
In a flyer issued earlier last month, the OLPF Project Unit said that eligible persons have up to July 29 to apply for an instrument. This has since changed based on Saturday’s press release. The flyer had said that completed application forms must be submitted only to the accredited ICT Hubs or the offices of the OLPF Community Liaison Officers in each region and at OLPF community outreach events. All applicants would have been given a receipt with a unique reference number upon submission of the completed form, the flyer had said.
Under the OLPF, the government plans to distribute computers to 90,000 poor families in Guyana in two years. Phase one will deliver 50,000 laptops to priority groups which include single-parent, differently-abled and least fortunate families. Families living together as a single household, who earn a combined income of $50, 000 or less, are eligible.
In Phase Two, the eligibility criteria will be adjusted to cater to families of higher income brackets.
The flyer had said that all approved applicants and their benefitting family members would be required to complete orientation and training programmes at their respective ICT Hubs which would include use and care of the computer, its features and learning tools and how to navigate the internet, before receiving the instrument. “Orientation takes five hours while the basic learning module takes 20 hours of guided learning for someone with no previous computer skills”, the flyer said. “All approved applicants will also be required to commit to a specified number of hours in community service, through a mutually agreed community project, while on the OLPF programme,” it added.
According to the Project Unit, once families receive their laptops, they will benefit from continuous technical support and learning guidance and will have the opportunity to enhance their learning by progressing from basic to intermediary and advanced levels, through their ICT Hubs.
The laptops will be equipped with a range of learning tools, anti-theft security features and internet ready portals. The care and safe keeping of the laptops will be the responsibility of the recipients, said the flyer.
It was reported earlier that several entities, including community-based organisations, youth groups, learning institutions and schools, religious entities and sector bodies from all regions in the country, had applied to become OLPF community Hubs. The hubs “will be required to provide a conducive learning environment and their own facilitators who will be accredited by the OLPF Project Unit; or accommodate OLPF accredited training volunteers, for the provision of technical support to the process, while facilitating and monitoring the technical and social learning progress of participating families”.
The project was initially launched in January, when 142 computers were ceremonially handed over to students from four entities. It was later disclosed that the computers were bought with a US$50,000 gift from Chinese company Huawei, after it had won a US$14M contract to lay fibre optic cables here. This is one of a number of controversies that have swirled around the project since its launch.
