India buys 250k OLPCs
guardian.co.uk
guardian.co.uk
Short answer: Make something people want. (Y Combinator's motto)
The greatest weakness in OLPC's implementation is perhaps its learning software, which mostly emphasizes constructionist style of learning. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructionist_learning)
People in developing countries don't yet want or need predominantly constructionist learning style (although I highly respect the method and agree to its importance in the long run). They need to make sure their youths have strong basic in math, science, and languages (English and their national language(s)) first.
In the words of Global Competitiveness Report, most of the world are still in the factor-driven or efficiency-driven stage of development. Current OLPC software emphasizes learning style best suited to countries/communities in the innovation-driven stage.
From my first-hand experience living and working in the education field in such a country, if OLPC incorporates highly effective learning software & contents on these essential subjects into its machines, it would make a much easier sale to governments and people of these countries.
The gist of the matter is that OLPC is a bad thing for India at large. Why? because India doesn't have the resources. There are thousands of schools without a blackboard and a chalk mainly due to lack of resources and corruption in the Govt. And in general teaching can be done without computers. Now if a country that can't afford blackboards and toilets goes shopping for computers, it comes at a cost: more schools that would be without teachers or any other basic amenities.
The government has so many programs (akshaya.net) in place to make sure that everyone(not just students) get access to good education. Education is one thing the Kerala government has done right. Having said that , i dont really know the situation in other parts of India.The point is , its not as bad as you think.
Kerala has the highest Human Development Index rate in India. It is highly unrepresentative of the country as a whole.
Anyway, OLPC-India targets govt schools. And if given to the state of Kerala, I would fully support it. Kerala is the state with the highest literacy rate (sometime back I heard it's 98%. so their state govt seem to be efficient in the area of education). There are govts that are corrupt. And I guess some of those OLPCs will go to corrupt bureaucrat's kids. But still a part of it would reach those for whom it was bought - the govt school kids. Many schools don't have blackboards? The situation won't get worse anyway. Think of it as money being used for a purpose rather than going to another bureaucrat's pocket in lump some.
P.S: Even if one of those who got an OLPC, gets bitten by the geek-bug / entrepreneur-bug. Turns out to do something for his locality/surrounding sometime later. I would say the OLPC has done it's job :)
[full disclosure: I'm from Bangalore]
Can they really not afford it, or are there other factors at play?
Any reasonably sized economy can own them even if half the population is starving. That is the power of aggregation. What matters is per capita income. Can India really afford to buy a laptop for all its children? $100s is almost three months salary for a primary school teacher in many parts of India. And there are hordes of qualified people willing to work at those wages, if the government gives them the job. Yet there are so many vacant posts, and if what I hear is right there are so many schools without any teachers at all. Why is it?
Micro loans for small businesses? OLPC? English lessons in rural villages? Subsidizing cheap public transport to far flung areas that the quickly aging infrastructure doesn't properly service?
How dare you propose such luxuries when children are starving on the streets!!
Quick fact: the Indian government can allocate all of their budget to Feeding Poor Children and there would still be plenty of malnourished kids begging on the streets.