OLPC Oceania

(sourced from http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Oceania)

OLPC Oceania is active in many of the Islands of the Pacific. Ethnologically, the Oceania region includes sub-regions of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Geographically, it includes thousands of coral atolls and volcanic islands with small populations, grouped in 26 island nations. There are about 1.7 million children aged 6-12 in the region.

At the 2007 Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Summit, the leaders of 21 nations noted “the potential utility of the One Laptop Per Child initiative and the need for education authorities … to assess the priority to be accorded to it in their countries as a tool for education and disseminating information to rural and remote communities…”

In 2008, One Laptop per Child Inc., and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) formed a partnership to introduce the OLPC concept in the region and conduct small pilots of the XO Laptop in schools in 5 PIF Countries: Nauru, Niue, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. (* The pilots were made possible by (1) a donation of 5000 XO laptops by OLPC worth US$2 million and, (2) the assignment by OLPC and SPC of human resources worth US$500k.)

In 2009-10, 17 Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) nations will introduce the OLPC programme in their schools. Countries include the five original Pilot countries plus the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Republic of Marshall Islands, Palau, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga and Tuvalu

In consultation with governments, donor partners and other key stakeholders, OLPC and SPC have developed a concept note to deliver "One Laptop per Pacific Child" to every child in the region in Basic Education by 2015.

Assisting in the establishment of a "National Core Team" to own and coordinate direct each national effort is the first and most crucial task in setting up a successful and sustainable OLPC deployment.

Each project is developing its own Monitoring and Evaluation criteria, although moves are underway to establish regional (and indeed universal) benchmarks, as requested by multilateral and international donor organisations.

Related activity in the region includes implementation of a satellite-based Pacific Rural Internet Connectivity System (Pacific RICS) consisting of low-cost VSAT satellite broadband Internet that will provide a broad infrastructure to accommodate large-scale OLPC rollout. This initiative, launched at the 2007 Forum Leaders meeting in Tonga responds to a call by Leaders in the Pacific Plan Digital Strategy to bridge the digital and communication divide between the urban and rural and remote areas in the Pacific.

Initial funding came from the Australian Government, however for its usefulness to be realized in the region's rural and remote communities, Pacific Island countries need to invest in roll-out programs at national levels. The RICs together with the Oceania OLPC initiative is a package for rural and remote areas in the Pacific, addressing both the transport of information as well as the content - 'Every RICS site is an OLPC Hub'.

Initial countries include Solomon Islands, Tonga, Kiribati, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.

To view the current status of progress within a leading site see the Solomon Islands or Papua New Guinea pages of the OLPC wiki - http://wiki.laptop.org

Trial deployments have started, or as of January 2009 are in preparation at the following countries:

Projects under way (see http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_<Country> e.g. http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Tonga - for details if the country is not wikified):

1. Solomon Islands
2. Papua New Guinea
3. Nauru
4. Tuvalu
5. Niue
6. Cook Islands
7. Vanuatu
8. Samoa
9. Tonga
10. Vanuatu - There are two Vanuatu projects, one in an NGO and the other with the Govt and MOE.
11. FSM - An XO-1.5 deployment

Projects ready to proceed:

1. Kiribati
2. Tokelau
3. New Caledonia
4. Palau

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