Director-General of UNESCO: Plan Ceibal has transformed the privilege of few into a right for all

© UNESCO/Susana Sam-Vargas -The Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova visiting the Escuela Grecia. Presentation of the Ceibal Plan – one laptop per child. Uruguay, September 2012

 

On 13 September 2012, the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova kicked off her official visit to Uruguay at the Escuela Grecia in Montevideo. She was accompanied by the Minister of Education and Culture Mr. Ricardo Ehrlich, Vice-Minister of Education and Culture, President of the National Commission of Uruguay for UNESCO Mr. Oscar Gomez da Trinidade, the Ambassador of Uruguay to UNESCO Mr. Omar Mesa and the Director of UNESCO’s Office in Montevideo Mr. Jorge Grandi.

During her visit to the school, she was greeted by enthusiastic primary school students, who proudly spoke about their work using their CEIBALITA laptop computers. Addressing the school authorities and students, the Director-General said that she was honoured to be visiting the GRECIA School and to have the opportunity to learn about the Plan CEIBAL. She underlined that in the 21st century, universal access to knowledge and quality education could be accelerated with the introduction of communication and information technologies in schools.

This project has transformed the privilege of a few into a right for all — placing Uruguay as the first country in the world to cover its entire primary and early secondary education with laptops, connectivity, educational contents and training, and transforming family life for all involved.

Read the full post in UNESCO.ORG

1 in 20 Latin American children use an OLPC laptop

There are roughly 58 million primary school students in Latin America, according to UNESCO’s latest data from their Education For All initiative.   5% of children in that age range are not in school.  And 5% of them use XOs: 1.5 million children have their own, and Peru’s urban initiative is giving another 1.5 million students in urban schools access to XOs through a program where groups of 3-5 students share a laptop.

 

Today 4/5 of these students are in Uruguay, Peru, Argentina, and Mexico.   But new programs are growing rapidly, in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, and elsewhere.

That’s a lot of budding Pythonistas, Scratcheros, and Linux users!
Now if only my own home country would start providing computers and connectivity to its students as a matter of course…