The One Laptop per Family (OLPF) initiative conducted its final distribution for Region Four yesterday, handing out 1,050 netbooks.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who was involved in the distribution, said critics have stated that more emphasis should have been placed on training.
However, the initiative has taken into account that persons’ exposure levels to computers are on different levels. He said many people have seen laptops and have used computers previously and had a “natural talent and natural flare for computing.”
Hinds said citizens who qualified and received laptops should “appreciate and utilise” them for betterment. He noted that the government was committed to expanding access to the internet throughout Guyana.
He mentioned that the government was working on what he called “a backbone” which would be an intranet expansion for Guyana that would connect government ministries and agencies that would ultimately be accessible through the internet.
He said the programme was changing the face of technology within Guyana. Hinds noted that the world was a village and that distance was easily eliminated by developing countries acquiring computer literacy. He noted the saying that “there are the three ‘r’s’; reading, (w)riting and (a)rithmetic,” and added that computer literacy had to be added in some way to change the education mentality on Guyana.
Police Officer Ronald Thomas was the recipient of a netbook and said that the application process was smooth and he was pleased with how the programme delivered the computers throughout the community.
The Prime Minister spoke off the cuff about the OLPF programme being used to encourage the Guyana Police Force to develop its own programme for officers. A teacher from Ogle told Stabroek News that she would mostly be using her computer for work and to prepare lesson plans for her students. She said “it would help with all the classroom work and preparation… It would be great if the programme extended to all teachers because we could use the help.”
Multiple young professional women were seen at the five distribution locations. Many of them are single and stated that the computer can be utilised to write business plans, help in lesson planning for teachers, take online courses for clerks and aspiring accountants.
The OLPF initiative distributed 90 computers at the Mahaica Community Centre, Hope, Mahaica; 126 at the Enterprise Community Centre, Enterprise, ECD; 493 at the Ogle Community Centre, Ogle, ECD; 185 at the Zoar Congregation Church, Plaisance, ECD and 156 at the Demerara Cricket Club, Queenstown.
