The United Nations Children and Education Fund and Corporate Nigeria have agreed to adopt the worldwide 'One Laptop Per Child' strategy as part of their corporate social responsibility projects in education.
According to details made available to HANA by the 'One Laptop Per Nigerian Child' OLPNC, the organisations promoting the OLPNC initiative, together with UNICEF will help attract leading corporate bodies for the scheme designed to give laptops to children in Primary schools.OLPC was initiated by Prof.Nicholas Negroponte of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to help developing countries in the third world mainly to catch up with the global digital revolution. A member of OLPNC, Mr. Tomi Davies, said that the US-led non-profit initiative was building an all inclusive and broad-based organisation that would promote and propagate the OLPC idea in Nigeria . He said, "We have opened discussions with some corporate organizations and some are already helping us.The aim is to start a national debate on digital literacy for Nigerian children so the country can be an active participant in the emerging global knowledge economy for which the use of computers is taken for granted much like access to television and telephones have become fundamentals of today's information age." He revealed that the Director of Information Technology, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. M.K Ibrahim, Director of Strategy at the Nigerian Communications Commission, Mrs. Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien, are some of the people that have joined the OLPNC team.He added that the organizations have also initiated discussions with UBEC, NERDC and other primary and secondary school stakeholders. "The vision is for the Nigeria of the future to be a leader in the contribution of digitally based intellectual property as a means of capital value creation and competitive advantage in the world. Our children are the future and they are here now. We cannot wait until everything from the past ( i.e. Classrooms, Teachers, Books, Pens etc) is in place and available to all before we start addressing the future (i.e. Laptops, Connectivity, Content, Security etc). Otherwise, the digital divide may become a digital chasm that is too wide for the next generation of Nigerians to bridge," he said.
According to details made available to HANA by the 'One Laptop Per Nigerian Child' OLPNC, the organisations promoting the OLPNC initiative, together with UNICEF will help attract leading corporate bodies for the scheme designed to give laptops to children in Primary schools.OLPC was initiated by Prof.Nicholas Negroponte of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to help developing countries in the third world mainly to catch up with the global digital revolution. A member of OLPNC, Mr. Tomi Davies, said that the US-led non-profit initiative was building an all inclusive and broad-based organisation that would promote and propagate the OLPC idea in Nigeria . He said, "We have opened discussions with some corporate organizations and some are already helping us.The aim is to start a national debate on digital literacy for Nigerian children so the country can be an active participant in the emerging global knowledge economy for which the use of computers is taken for granted much like access to television and telephones have become fundamentals of today's information age." He revealed that the Director of Information Technology, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. M.K Ibrahim, Director of Strategy at the Nigerian Communications Commission, Mrs. Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien, are some of the people that have joined the OLPNC team.He added that the organizations have also initiated discussions with UBEC, NERDC and other primary and secondary school stakeholders. "The vision is for the Nigeria of the future to be a leader in the contribution of digitally based intellectual property as a means of capital value creation and competitive advantage in the world. Our children are the future and they are here now. We cannot wait until everything from the past ( i.e. Classrooms, Teachers, Books, Pens etc) is in place and available to all before we start addressing the future (i.e. Laptops, Connectivity, Content, Security etc). Otherwise, the digital divide may become a digital chasm that is too wide for the next generation of Nigerians to bridge," he said.
1 comment:
Hi Sebastian. So what do you think about this project? Do you have any experiences working with theese computers in Tanzania?
Lotta, Sweden
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