Of Laptops and Idiots
HRD Ministry rejects Plan panel's idea of laptop per child
New Delhi, July 25. (PTI): Rejecting the Planning Commission's idea of implementing 'One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Scheme' as "paedagogically suspect", the HRD Ministry feels it would be appropriate to instead utilise the money for universalization of secondary education.
"The case for giving a computer to every single is paedagogically suspect. It may actually be detrimental to the growth of creative and analytical abilities of the child", Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee told the Planning Commission in a letter sent last month.
".....We cannot visualize a situation for decades when we can go beyond the pilot stage. We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools," Banerjee said.
Citing notes received from a few experts in this regard, he said "Our considered view, therefore, is that there is no case for further engaging with this idea within this Ministry."
"...If the Planning Commission has the kind of money that would be required for this scheme, it would be appropriate to utilize it for 'Universalisation of Secondary Education' for which, a concept paper has been lying with the Planning Commission for approval since November 2005," he said.
The OLPC was a Non-Profit Association dedicated to research to develop a 100-dollar laptop to educate children. Faculty members at the MITMedia Lab launched this initiative. It was first announced by Lab co-founder Nicholas Negroponte, now Chairman of OLPC.
Banerjee said that based on feedback from N K Sinha, a Joint Secretary in the Ministry who had been deputed to attend the presentation at the MIT, "We do not think that the idea of Prof Negroponte is mature enough to be taken seriously at this stage and no major country is presently following this. Even nside America, there is no much enthusiasm about this".
PS: Taken from The Hindu
Sir,
I would like to bring attention to a recent article dated the 25th of July 2006, regarding the HRD ministry's rejection of the Massachussetts Institute of Technology's "One Laptop Per Child" initiative.
According to the article, the HRD ministry believes that spending 450 Crore Rupees on a laptop scheme for underprivileged children is a sinkhole of sorts, and the money would be better spent on improving access to primary and secondary education. I feel that this betrays a lack of imagination among the bureaucrats in Delhi. Nobody, let alone the MIT MediaLab, is claiming that this is THE panacea for the current ailments afflicting primary and secondary education in India. But, there can be no doubt that this is one part of the puzzle to improve access to information for kids everywhere. It may not be directly beneficial today, but the long term potential of this idea is undeniable.
The HRD ministry contends that it does not have sufficient funds to cover this project. Considering the amount that is wasted in government on so called "poverty alleviation" schemes, I think that the ministry should be able to dig up 450 crores, or if it cannot afford that, something much less. The fact is that MIT is giving away a lot of intellectual property and knowledge for $100, and this is not an opportunity to be missed.
The fact that the ministry believes that this scheme will not aid in educating children shows the kind of primitive and glacial mentality bureaucrats have towards education and access to it. Sadly, people in power seem to believe that a person is "educated" once they are literate. Literacy is but one part of an education - the vehicle for access to more information. A person who can read has access to information that gives him/her so much more mental space and creativity. In my mind, atleast, access to a computer is access to the greatest information source of them all - the internet. I would like to bring attention to a study done by scientists at NIIT, called the Hole in The Wall, wherein they placed a computer, literally, in a hole in the wall of their building that abutted a slum area in New Delhi. The computer had an internet connection, a rudimentary mouse and a monitor. There were no instructions for operating the machine, but the kids in the slum learnt how to make use of the mouse, and click on hyperlinks in the webpages. The ones that went to school knew how to read the information on the webpages, and they in turn helped out the other children too. As part of the documentary, where I heard about his study, the kids were interviewed as well, and asked about their dreams and aspirations, and all of them mentioned that they wanted to be Doctors or engineers or scientists. Kids from a slum! I challenge the HRD ministry to show one example of underprivileged children, who have no access to the internet or a library of some sorts, who show this kind of imagination. Thats the point of the internet or a library - to breed and grow an imagination in children, to make them think in ways that they would not have thought before. Education is the only way that India can have a truly participative democracy, and part of being educated is being imaginative and creative. The MIT OLPC scheme offers this to millions of children. Sadly, our babus seem to be so "under-educated" themselves they can neither see the consequences of their decision, nor the benefits of this idea.
PS: Sent to The Hindu
Sadly, this'll never get printed.