One Laptop Per Child programme boosts learning of Aboriginal children
Last updated 12/06/2009 14:36:20
One Laptop Per Child programme boosts learning of Aboriginal children - Photos Courtesy of Australia The Movie
Aboriginal children are benefiting from a scheme which distributes laptops free in the hope of combating illiteracy and truancy, Reuters reports.
The Asia-Pacific arm of One Laptop Per Child, an international charity, has so far given away 1.5 million computers and 2,000 laptops have been delivered to three schools in indigenous communities in Australia, where illiteracy can be multi-generational and English hardly, if ever, spoken.
The charity was founded by Nicholas Negroponte, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher, and has given computers to school-age children as far afield as Cambodia, Rwanda and Papua New Guinea.
Through private donations and corporate sponsorships it's hoped to donate 400,000 computers in Australia over the next two or three years, all directly to indigenous school children.
"When we have the opportunity to inoculate against ignorance and illiteracy we must take it," said Barry Vercoe, who heads up the programme. "We're trying to gives these kids a shot they might not otherwise get growing up here."
Studies indicate that illiteracy among Aboriginal children has long been underestimated. A report by education ministers in Australia estimates one in three indigenous third grade students failed to meet a minimum reading standard established by the government for all Australians.
Australia is less than two years into a nationwide initiative to intervene in communities heavily populated by Aboriginals, in some instances sending in police and the army to enforce alcohol bans and conduct health checks for children.
A report by the Australian Education Union commissioned to examine government intervention in the Northern Territory found that about $1.6 billion is needed to ensure Aboriginal students have the same opportunities as non-Aboriginal students.
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Source: http://www.reuters.com/