The government on Wednesday expressed its resolve to introduce an enabling atmosphere in the country's schools and colleges to allow students to use low-cost laptops which would serve as electronic school bags.
"The government is keen to use IT as a tool to facilitate the process of learning at the school and college level and the introduction of low-cost laptops would act as a catalyst to revolutionise the whole concept of education," said Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari in a meeting with Nicholas Negroponte.
Nicholas Negroponte is the founder and chairman of the One Laptop for Child, a non-profit organisation based at MIT Media Labs which develops and distributes laptops worth around $100 each among the world's children.
State Minister for Information Technology Ishaq Khan Khakwani, Member IT Tariq Badshah and other officials of the ministry were also present.
Nicholas briefed Awais Leghari on his vision to bring computer technology within affordable access of the world's children to help them learn and receive education through independent interaction and exploration. He said his vision of One laptop per Child first announced at the World Economic forum at Davos Switzerland in January 2005, had become a world-wide success with countries such as Brazil, China, Egypt, South Africa and Thailand already putting plans in place to distribute as many as 15 million units of the device.
Nicholas who was also scheduled to meet the prime minister and the president later Wednesday evening, said the machine was already in the final stages of design, would be distributed for free by governments starting next first in Nigeria and Brazil, and then in Argentina, Thailand and Egypt.
He said the student laptop computers had been designed to have 7-inch screens, wireless internet support, office productivity and relevant educational applications, and were based on open source platforms.
He said the laptop computers provided a very high portability for ease of use both at schools and home and could be linked to each other within a certain periphery through wireless technology. Awais Leghari appreciated the efforts and vision of Nicholas and assured all possible help and commitment from his ministry to ensure a successful roll-out of the plan in Pakistan.
He said IT Ministry could also provide resources for the training of support staff and provision of necessary infrastructure.
He said a country like Pakistan with a population of over 150 million and a large number of school-going children could benefit immensely from this technology which was not only cheap and affordable, but also capable of generating employment opportunities and promoting growth of education.
The minister also formed a contact group head by member IT Tariq Badshah in the Ministry of Information Technology to co-ordinate with officials of One Laptop for Child to draw up a comprehensive plan with clear definition of roles and responsibilities for stakeholders to ensure possible implementation of this project in Pakistan from July next year.