One Laptop per Pacific Child Michael HutakRegional Director, Oceania

OLPC Country Planning Workshop 11-13 November 2009University of the South PacificSuva, Fiji

“An education project, not a laptop project…

…children are our mission, not our market.”

OLPC MISSION: develop and distribute a robust,low-cost laptop that can transform how we educate the world's children.

One Laptop per Child• Global non-profit association• MIT Media Lab• First project in Senegal in 1982• XO laptop launched in 2005. • First XO deployment Feb ‘07• Mass production Nov ’07• 1.2m units produced• Projects in 31 countries

in 19 languages

One Laptop per Child

OLPC Foundation• advocacy for 1-to-1 computing and joyful learning• using grassroots technology for education in

developing countries• champion for children

OLPC Association• Develops and manufactures

the XO laptop • services deployment

Global start-up partners

• Children lack opportunity not capability• Learning to learn; learning by doing • Inquiry beyond school, school hours• Reaching the poorest, most isolated kids• Using ICT to learn, not learning to use ICT!

a child-centred approach

Five core principles

1. child ownership*2. low ages3. saturation4. connection5. free & open source* In the Pacific,

child is custodian

The Pacific

• World’s largest ocean – stretching from pole to pole• 46% of Earth's water surface • 32% of Earth's total surface area• Larger than all of the Earth's land area combined.• approx. 25,000 islands

Pacific challenges• Poverty: 6 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) -- Kiribati,

Samoa, Solomon Is., Tuvalu, Vanuatu and PNG. • Globalization, natural and human- made disasters, food

security, rapid population growth and increasing rates of urbanization

• Climate change -- PICs less than 0.5% global emissions, yet 3 X more vulnerable to CC(IPCC)

• Impacts on the environment esp. depleted fish stocks• Protection of indigenous language, culture and practices,

local markets and livelihoods, communities and families • Fragile states, governance, weak capacity

Pacific education• c. 1.7m children aged 6-12• 40% 6-12yos attend no school• Church sector has significant skills and capacity• Movement to preserve indigenous languages

– PNG: over 830 languages, inc. English and two lingua francas, Tok Pisin and Hiri Motu.

– 435 languages used for initial education, in 1980 just two in Bougainville (North Solomons)

• Pacific-wide trend to emerging level of formal education called “elementary” – years 1-3 taught in the vernacular

One Laptop per Pacific Child

• Focus on partnership• Empowerment of communities• Country-led national programmes• Regional coord & tech assistance• Country-to-country exchange• Collaborative, inclusive approach

Global and Pacific Policy FrameworkIn the Pacific, OLPC is guided by several core policy touchstones:• 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child• 2000 Education for All (UNESCO)• 2000 Millennium Development Goals

– MDG 1 – poverty and hunger– MDG 2 – universal primary education– MDG 3 – gender equality– MDG 8 – partnership for development

• 2005 Tunis Commitment to bridge the digital divide, WSIS• 2005 Pacific Aid Effectiveness Principles• 2005-14 UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development• 2005, 2007 Pacific Plan, Pacific Islands Forum• 2007 Pacific Regional Digital Strategy• 2007 PIF Leaders’ Communiqué• 2007 Cape Town Open Education Declaration

OLPC Oceania 2008-15

OLPC: successful project drivers

OLPC Oceania 2008-15

2008 – Pilots in 5 countries

2009-10 OLPC introduced and assessed for scale-up by at least 13 countries

2010-15 OLPC scaled up to deliver by 2015 one laptop per every child in basic education

Roadmap to One Laptop per Pacific Child

2007 Pacific Plan, Digital Strategy2008 Pilot and design phase

OLPC/SPC PartnershipPilots in 5 PIF countries

2009-10 Program and implementation phaseTechnical Working Group formedCountry led national programsOLPC introduced in 14 PIF countries

2010-15 Scale up to sustainability

2008: Pilots in 5 countries Regional TA Partners:

One Laptop Per Child Foundation Inc.Secretariat of the Pacific Community

Pilots in 5 countries:Nauru (1)Niue (1)Solomon Islands (3)Papua New Guinea (3)Vanuatu (1)

Funds expended – US$2.5 million:OLPC donates 5000 laptops to Pacific worth US$2m OLPC and SPC assign human resources worth

US$500k.

‘Every PACRICS site is an OLPC hub’

• RICS provides the broad infrastructure to facilitate at-scale OLPC rollout in remote contexts.

• Orders for 200 RICS sites

• Approx 400 kids per site

• ADB-funded for 5 years

Niue

Solomon Is

Nauru’s rich task curriculum

PNG

OLPC PNG teacher training

2008 Pilot Phase: lessons learned

• OLPC adds value for children, communities, countries• OLPC aligns with Pacific goals and plans, inc. MDGs• Country-level demand, political and community

support in the Pacific• Small trials provide an insufficient evidence base • M&E should be integrated at the outset• Broader-based TA needed to build country capacity• A standing stock of XO laptops and peripherals should

be centrally kept in the region to efficiently feed trials (“Pacific Pool”)

2008 Pilot Phase: outputs

1. Country-led, region-wide demand2. Technical Working Group3. Pacific Country Program model4. Community Consultation Guidelines5. OLPC Pacific Pool

Country-level demand- official requests from (at least) 14 countries

Pacific Country Program modelDeveloped by TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP from lessons learned from pilots:• Country Program Plan

– Goals– Team/Governance/Coordination– Needs Assessment/Analysis– Implementation– M&E activities– Resource mobilisation

• Rollout – must proceed with entire school populations (no students excluded)– should address priority needs of children and communities– should be coordinated across the whole of government

• First deployment is highly strategic and must involve key personnel:– Training of trainers– Local IT deployment specialists– Teachers and other key edu. Staff inc. inspectors and M&E specialists

• Community engagement program• M&E framework• Designated TWG Focal Point, National Core Team

Coord Model: National Core TeamCross-cutting “whole of government” approach • Cabinet sub-committee, led at Ministerial level• Reports to National Planning Committee• Workplan developed at Dept Secretary level• Five core sub-teams...

Pacific model: vernacular edu

• OLPC strengthens this movement and protects local languages

• Cf: XO in Kosrae in FSM– First deployed to Years 4-6 in English– Older kids adapt XO to Kosrean– Then deployed to years 1-3 in vernacular

• This model scalable across Pacific

OLPC Oceania Technical Working GroupMission: Assess the viability of OLPC initiative in Oceania and its suitability for scaling up from 2010 to 2015. Objective: Facilitate OLPC Country Programmes in 13 PICTs

OLPC Oceania Technical Working GroupMission: Assess the viability of OLPC initiative in Oceania and its suitability for scaling up from 2010 to 2015. Objective: Facilitate OLPC Country Programmes in 13 PICTs

OLPC Oceania TWG – private sector roles

OLPC Pacific Pool: Ripple effect

2009-10: Trials in 14 countries

Regional TA Partners: • Technical Working

Group

Funds required 3.5m:• TWG

1.0m• Pacific Pool 2.5m

OLPC requested by:• Fiji • Samoa• FSM • Solomon Is.• Nauru • Tokelau• Niue • Tonga• Palau • Tuvalu• PNG • Vanuatu • RMI • Fr. Polynesia

2009-10 outcomes

1. OLPC Country Trials in 14 PICTs

2. Credible evidence base to enable countries to assess capacity and readiness to sustainability scale up

3. M&E country-level baseline model

2. Independent evaluation of TWG

2009: other projects in dev.Papua New Guinea (Divine Word University)

PNG Sustainable Development Program Lihir Sustainable Development Program East Sepik Provincial Government New Ireland Provincial Government

Timor-Leste Talks w/ World Food Program, World Vision and TL Govt

Kosrae (Federated States of Micronesia) 2.5k XOs over two years

Australia 1800 of 5000 XOs to Pacific to remote aboriginal schools

Painting created on the XO by child from Gaire, Papua New Guinea, 2008.

Thank you. www.laptop.org