| Kenya giving laptops to all first graders, amid controversy |
| Posted by: Susan Einhorn |
| New president Uhuru Kenyatta plans to decrease Kenya\'s digital divide with the rest of the world by starting in January to hand out more than 400,000 free laptops to Kenyan first graders. Mr. Kenyatta may be known overseas for his March election victory, despite a Hague indictment for inciting election violence in Kenya five years ago. But at home, Kenyatta has pinned his political popularity and his legacy on a project to fund and give away what will eventually be 1.3 million solar-powered laptops to students across the nation, partly supported by Microsoft Corporation. Yet the government’s allocation of huge amounts of money – this month parliament allocated $665 million to get it moving – is igniting the wrath of various educators and school groups that see it as a political gimmick, or as a distraction from real needs at a time when teacher salaries are poorly funded and when many schools don\'t have desks and textbooks. Some of the program\'s pilot schools have no building, for example, but meet instead outside under trees. |
| Source: Christian Science Monitor (MA-USA) | Published: June 18th, 2013 |
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