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What has happened to Baah-Wiredu One Laptop Per Child ?

One Laptop Per Child Overview

Ghana has signed an agreement with OLPC to purchase 10,000 XOs, scheduled for delivery in 2009. This is following an initial pilot of 100 laptops . The initiative to develop the capacity of Ghanaian youth is a primary concern to the President of Ghana. Ghana’s 2007 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana, indicates that Government will enhance the usage of computers in schools. The Ministry of Education, Science and Sports collaborating with Ministry of Communication has been tasked to oversee the implementation of this program.

During the Davos World Economic Forum in early 2005, then-secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, joined Nicholas Negroponte in presenting the children's learning laptop design to the world as the "$100 laptop". Negroponte's idea of computer-facilitated constructionist learning on a mobile platform became an instant international sensation.

President Lula loved XO laptops

Developing-world presidents from Brazil to Nigeria to Thailand were captivated by Negroponte's dream that they could revolutionize education, the very act of learning, with an inexpensive yet rugged laptop specifically designed for children that negated the need to construct schools or hire teachers.

In just 4 years, Nicholas Negroponte's idea has grown into the non-profit organization, One Laptop Per Child, an international consortium of leading technology companies and gifted computer programmers and designers who have produced an actual working laptop, the XO-1 based on constructionist learning.

OLPC has distributed over 500,000 XO-1 laptops that could open a window onto the world for the children and by extension their families and community. And once the children outgrow the laptops, the technology can be repurposed in ways we can only imagine.

Yet, there is still much confusion around the progress of OLPC and the impact of the XO in eduction. And with the recent refocusing, a few too many premature program obituaries. So to provide a comprehensive status of the One Laptop Per Child program, and the XO-1 laptop impact, OLPC News is proud to publish:

In Ghana, where the Baah-Wiredu Laptop per Child Foundation is working towards a 10,000 laptop deployment, the Millennium Village cluster in Bonsaaso includes some of the first adopters of one laptop per child.

The Millennium Villages are part of an effort to help sub-saharan African countries realize the Millennium Development Goals through global social, financial, and innovation support. Professor Jeffrey Sachs and former Secretary General Kofi Annan have worked closely together in designing and championing the MDGs, and proposing Millennium Villages and related programs.