The first shipment of 5,000 laptops for the government’s ambitious One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) initiative arrived in the country yesterday and the first recipients should receive their notebooks by next Friday.
The Haier-branded laptops came on board a Laparkan flight from the United States and Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir noted at a brief ceremony at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri that the arrival of the China-manufactured equipment is aimed at bringing “more and better knowledge to the Guyanese family” rather than “bringing an instrument because elections is one month away”.
He described the occasion as a momentous one and he noted that it is in keeping with a commitment made several months ago, after the first tender was abandoned, that the launch of the OLPF programme would not be delayed and that the laptops would be in Guyana by this month.
When the programme was rolled out in January this year, Nadir said that the president had assured the 90,000 intended recipients that while the government is buying 27,000 laptops, some 50,000 laptops can be delivered to families by year end.
The first shipment of laptops is valued in excess of US$1.4M ($280M) and plans are being finalized to have the first set of laptops delivered by Friday of next week. Nadir commended the staff of the OLPF programme and he noted that it is being manned by a young and professional team.
He said that there are sceptics who may opine that the project will not materialize but he assured the recipients that, “this is not the end, it’s the beginning of the delivery of the first set of laptops”. He said that the Chinese have won a tender to deliver some 31,000 laptops worth US$8.5M and he noted that they are expected to be in Guyana before the end of the year.
He said that the programme targeted persons with disabilities, single parents and persons who earn an income of less that $50,000. He said that to date, an “army” of verification officers have so far verified 19,000 persons who will receive the first set of laptops.
In addition, Nadir noted that some 35 hubs will be made operational next week in all the administrative regions, noting that only Regions 8 and 9 have not been included in the list of recipients. He said that the challenge in that regard is unreliable electricity and internet connectivity in those areas and he added that a special programme is being designed for hinterland locations where the government expects every Amerindian community to have operating hubs with reliable connectivity.
Each laptop costs US$279 and comes with a warranty period in which the recipient can visit the local dealer, Auto Supplies, the company which is associated with Haier here. Brian James of Auto Supplies noted that the facility in Middle Street in the city is set up to address issues regarding the laptops.
Storage
CEO of the project Sesh Sukhdeo noted that the devices will be placed in storage and checked off after which they will be allocated to recipients who have been verified. “They will go out in a planned manner”, he noted.
The mining town of Linden is set to be among the first to benefit from the project and three groups have agreed to sign on to the draft Accredited Information Communication Technology (ICT) Hub Agreement.
The approved ICT Hubs in Linden are the Young and Thoughtful headed by Cornelius Roberts, the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN) under the management of Valerie Adams-Sharpe and SOM Skills Training managed by Pastor Selwyn Sills.
Sukhdeo and a team of workers were in Linden on Wednesday on one of their roll-out activities with the specific objective of discussing the draft Hub Agreement. There are nine clauses enshrined in the Agreement one of which is that each Hub will provide monthly internet service and permit all OLPF approved recipients and members of their households use of the internet service. The project headquarters will make all payments for internet service directly to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) during a specified period.
The team spent most of the day going through the roles and responsibilities for those providing the Hub services. In addition to agreeing to the draft document, the three parties have agreed that in Linden the distribution of the laptops would be done centrally. A new component of the programme is to ensure that youths are engaged in sustaining it. The OPLF office is currently seeking two youth leaders in Linden to spearhead this component of the programme and it is offering a salary of $50,000 monthly to the successful applicants.
“Although we have our county office we also have at least three organisations that will support their local communities in terms of training and providing the facilities for them to learn,” he said. The county office will be based in the Linden Enterprise Network’s Business Centre from November 2.
“In this case all three parties have decided to come together and hold an informal working session and obviously they have no issues. All three parties also say that they agree to have the distribution done centrally,” Sukhdeo said. In the light of this, beneficiaries will be given a date, time and venue to uplift their computers. Beneficiaries are also required to participate in a two-hour orientation session when they collect the laptop. “This time would be spent educating you on how to take care of your laptop, what to do with the laptop, and what is on the laptop, the basics of it and then they will continue their training from there on,” he explained.
The OLPF is the brainchild of President Bharrat Jagdeo, according to the OLPF Secretariat and is aimed at developing the country’s ICT sector. It has been at the centre of debate, as some critics view the project as an election gimmick. However, the government has maintained that the project focuses on bridging the digital divide and enhancing community and economic development.
Critics have said that better options would be to provide all teachers with laptops or to equip each child with laptops within the school setting. Questions have been raised about maintenance of the equipment, theft, reliability and cost of internet connections and ultimately what the laptops will be used for.
