By Russell Williams

There has been many high profile announcements by Caribbean governments of their respective One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) programmes. I have until now kept my opinions fairly quiet, but I think it is time we had more light and little less heat.

I am reminded of a plenary session I attended during the Caribbean Academicians conference some years ago in St. Kitts-Nevis. I listened intently to some very elaborate programmes and then asked – “what good are these programmes if we do not have a viable private sector to employ graduates of these programmes? What good are these programmes if they cannot be applied to some challenge or problem of the private sector or wider Caribbean society?” – I was not satisfied with the responses.

So here’s the question as it relates to the (OLPC), what are these school children going to do with their new laptops? Note the question was not, “what do we expect”; or what would we like or anticipate these students would do with the laptop?”

I will tell you of a 14-year-old boy growing up in a working class family in an inner city or what was considered a deprived neighbourhood. The boy was interested in science and technology and despite his family not having their own home computer; the boy was one of just 20 students of a roll of more than 300 students accepted to pursue Computer Studies at GCE O-Level.

One afternoon he discovered a building marked TechNorth, and being “fast” as we say, he ventured in and inquired as to what went on. The centre taught electronics, computer programming and repair to unemployed youths. Despite being told that the centre did not cater for school children he explained that with the Easter and summer holidays approaching he would have nothing to do – “you must have a computer in a corner somewhere I can use?” he asked. His persistence and proactive – if not direct – approach was rewarded and there began a long and mutually beneficial relationship between the centre and the boy.

That boy did something that, after almost 10 years of living in St. Kitts, I have yet to see an individual or group do and that is to request that resources be made available to them. My point is, that unless someone recognises that being knowledgeable and competent in the use of a computer is beneficial and can positively impact their lives, then the adage of leading horses to water seems very apt.

One should also bear in mind that our Federation ranks very highly in terms of private computer ownership (approx 34% of population in 2008) and in terms of internet penetration, 28% (Ectel 2010). All of the secondary schools have computer labs and a number of community centres were equipped with computers less than 3 years ago.

If we had a situation where these centres and the flagship National ICT Centre were fully subscribed and there was a need to satisfy pent up demand for these resources, then I would support the efforts to supply additional computers. However, these resources for the best part lie idle, so one can only surmise that the demand or interest in learning to use computers and indeed using those that have already been provided is absent. So one can only question the merit of issuing laptops.

Returning to the question of what would the laptops be used for? Once again I must return to the 14 year old boy: whose uncle was a computer programmer, the city where he lived was home to a computer manufacturer and there were efforts to stimulate the creation of technology companies and the use of technology; so one could readily identify with the employment and business opportunities in the sector and the city.

This is in stark contrast to the status quo in many of our islands, where what we find are a dwindling number of technology based companies barely able to scratch a living, in many cases with little or no support from their respective governments. To support the point, while serving on the steering committee for a European Union funded project, I was asked to assist in interviewing scholarship applicants. After several days of unpaid interviewing, not a single candidate expressed any desire to return to set up their own enterprise. In fact one young lady who worked for one of the software developers in St. Kitts laughed and said, “no ,there’s too much stress and run around”.

I am not aware of any extensive programmes under taken in St. Kitts-Nevis or regionally to develop a cadre of trainers who would then train teachers and educators how to develop digital content, create engaging computer based training materials. This would ensure that there is a wealth of locally produced, context appropriate content for these students armed with their shiny new laptops to access.

Had we invested in our people – specifically our teachers – and if they possessed the desire and aptitude to develop digital versions of their lessons, these could be stored on a server. This content and the need to access it might provide sufficient motivation for students and parents to make use of the significant investment in equipment presently in schools and community centres. It may also encourage students of all ages to use the equipment more responsibly, further reducing the maintenance bill.

The fact of the matter is that much of the groundwork necessary to achieve a successful implementation of an OLPC project simply has not been done. How do we propose to measure the return on investment? What metrics are we going to use? One also has to question what plans exist to sustain and maintain these systems? With many of our national economies burdened with debt, has any thought been given as to how these programmes can be used leverage the economies, rather than burden them?

Are we expecting to see an increase in the number of local software development companies in say 3 years? Given that in many islands we have not gathered the data to establish a starting point from which to reference, announcing we have 5 software development companies in 3 years would not necessarily be an achievement.

Do we anticipate an improvement in school grades? I would certainly expect an increase in YouTube or MuVids views. Along with increased numbers of ring-tone and North-American music downloads.
However, are we expecting high school students to stimulate economic activity by paying for these services? And regardless of who’s paying the bill, whose economies are going to benefit? The last time I checked little or no effort had been committed to supporting the creation of a Caribbean development house for developing the next Farmville or Mafia Wars.

There are benefits to be had from a properly thought out and implemented deployment of an OLPC project, however I am yet to be convinced that any of our islands will deliver such an implementation.

What we are seeing is the consistent focus on an asset or infrastructure in the absence of any thought to the end result, and any measurable analysis of the impact of the deployment and its sustainability.

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