<div dir="ltr">While it sucks for the students without electricity, I'm not sure if I would make a different choice.<div><br></div><div>If I were in charge, I would just take the money and invest in teachers and increasing the number of grades for which free schooling is available. Well educated people existed before computers and this focus on what I would call vocational training (i.e. how to use a computer) is shortsighted. </div>
<div><br></div><div>But anyway, with a fixed bag of money and a mandate to get these computers out and not every school having electricity, that's the only logical choice. The purpose of the computers is to raise the educational attainment of the country's young people as a whole and those with electricity access will be cheaper to educate using computers than those without computers.</div>
<div><br></div><div>IMHO, the problem is the whole laptop endeavour, not the implementation.</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>---</div><div>OpenStack for Africa: <a href="http://signup.kili.io" target="_blank">http://signup.kili.io</a></div>
<div><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:small">Musings: <a href="https://twitter.com/varud" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/varud</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:small">About Adam: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson</a></span><br>
</div></div></div>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, May 30, 2013 at 11:45 AM, Walubengo J <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jwalu@yahoo.com" target="_blank">jwalu@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div><div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif"><div>Listers,</div><div><br></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif">
This project seems to have just kicked off on the wrong tangent...was wondering how they would select WHICH primary schools would get the laptops and was shocked to read:<br></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif">
<br></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif">>><br></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif">
<br></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif">He (Kaimenyi, Cabinet Sec. for Education) said the availability of electricity and nearness to the main grid
was the basis used in deciding the schools selection criteria.</div><div>In
every three schools with electricity connection, the ministry has
selected one school close to the mains grid and another one that is far
away from the grid....</div><div><br></div><div>>> adopted from <a href="http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000084770&story_title=6-000-primary-schools-picked-for-free-laptop-project&pageNo=2" target="_blank">http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000084770&story_title=6-000-primary-schools-picked-for-free-laptop-project&pageNo=2</a></div>
<div><br></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif">Never mind that I thought these laptops would "solar-powered". But now it looks like if you are lucky to live near an electricity pole, your luck doubles as you get a bonus benefit of a laptop. If you happen to leave very far from one (think Pokot, Turkana, Tana River, Wajir, etc) your tough luck just got tougher. I cant think of a better way of "extending" rather than "bridging" the digital divide..<br>
</div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif"><br></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif">
walu.</div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif">nb: Mutoro:-sounds like you guys are going to have a very busy year in courts :-)</div>
<div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif"><br></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif">
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