First the Indian government showed interest in the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project by MIT’s Media Lab Asia, then decided to decline the offer. Some said that the Simputer fizzled out for lack of funding, though there pricing and usability issues. Now, according to Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee, the government is planning to implement a one PC per teacher project (should we call it ‘OPPT’?), connecting five lakh teachers from colleges and universities, and schools from 700 cities and towns. And free Internet. Well, free for the user; the project is going to cost taxpayers Rs. 50 crore per annum. This was at the launch of the governments education portal ‘Sakshat’. More here.
It is up to the schools, colleges and universities to accept the governments offer of an interest free loan; given the power situation, some will probably opt out. Also, I’ve been trying access the Sakshat website (here, according to this article) for some time now. Keeps timing out, much like the governments interest in projects, sometimes.
Update: The site is at http://www.sakshat.edu.in/ , http://portal.sakshat.gov.in/wps/portal and http://www.sakshat.ernet.in/
Related:
- Times of India: E-learning Comes Of Age In India With ‘Sakshat’
- India Rejects Negroponte’s $100-A-Laptop For Kids Project