OLPC project grabs $11.7m federal budget

Australia received a major boost in its federal budget when One Laptop Per Child Australia got a funding of $11.7 million. The OLPC plan will be tax deductible from 1^st of July.

According to OLPC CEO Rangan Srikhanta the funding was in return of hard work for years. He also thanked [independent Lyne MP] Rob Oakeshott and [independent New England MP] Tony Windsor and Prime Minister for their support.

Now OLPC Australia set to give out 500,000 laptops to Australian students in a hope to eradicate the inequality based on the geography of the country. It will close the gap between the children residing in remote areas and urban areas in terms of education. Srikhanta said the program was first discussed in the electorates and then finally started working on it with the help of National Broadband Network and technology.

As per the OLPC plan the laptops will be Linux-based XO. With the help of the fundings received OLPC is planning to give out 50,000 laptops to the students. It will be just 10 percent and they are hoping to reach to about 2000 classrooms all over Australia.

In fact many schools started adopting this plan right away as they know it is going to benefit a lot. Oakeshott said this program will also help in his electorate. He also said that remote schools in the mid north coast of New South Wales that are on hills and valleys face a lot of problems both physically and technologically. OLPC will be a major boost to those schools.

He also cited concerns about the public policy in merging education and technology in the future. He wants OLPC and NBN to go hand in hand. He also emphasized on the importance of education for a huge and diverse country like Australia. After all its through education it is possible to bring equality in the society.

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