A Laptop for Every Child in India

Satish Jha

President & CEO,

OLPC India

At India Development Coalition of America

Chicago

Oct 31, 2009

Satish Jha, OLPC, satish@laptop.org

A Laptop

for

Every Child:

Learning “Learning”

Satish Jha, OLPC, satish@laptop.org

A Billion questions..

� A billion children have little access to computing

� A quarter of them live in India

� They are falling further behind the rest of the world..

���Everyday

− A Huge DIVIDE�.

− �������A Huge OPPORTUNITY�

A worm’s eye view..

� Challenges of

Cost of computers

Software costs

Curriculum

Basics of life

Resources

Electricity

Internet

School buildings

Climate

Teachers

Maintenance

A bird’s eye view

� Laptop for the poorest???

− Too large a challenge to handle??

− Poor have little interest in education??

− Give the poor children food first??

− Let the children read and write first??

− A luxury we cannot afford..??

Our response

� Technologies afford us an opportunity

− Making learning fun

− To overcome infrastructure challenges

− Making learning affordable

Design a laptop for learning

� That takes little power, any source of power

� That can connect with or without internet

� That is village friendly or “village proof”

� Rugged

� Zero Maintenance

� No software costs

� Affordable

� Makes learning fun

We are here because

we are passionate

about education as

an agent of change

Quality education for poor and rural population is central to the economic and social development –

Source – World Bank

What brings us together?

Poor have aspirations beyond survival

They recognize that

only education can

help achieve

aspirations.

Can our current educational eco-system alone deliver on these aspirations?

And they are willing to

invest in the future.

Significant progress in reducing out of school children

But challenges of

Quality

and

Adequacy

of current education format

remain.

Can more of the same really make our children compete for opportunities in 2020?

A solution needs to not just address challenges

of today but adjust to opportunities of

tomorrow.

What kind of education do we need to take 1% of our children into the service economy?

The solution needs to be 7

� Future ready – ‘the cell-phone of education’

� Transformational – generational leaps

� Doable – practical, implementable and accepted by the stakeholders

� Financially viable – entrepreneurial thinking to make it available at $ 1 a week

An idea originated in villages of India, Africa, South America..

….. spreading across the globe

What is OLPC [one laptop per child]

A project designed to help

underprivileged children access

sustainable education that is in sync

with today’s needs.

A rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for

collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.

It is a tool for education that creates skill sets that can transform lives

What can we do today?

� Opportunity to pilot the project in several schools

� At a cost of $1 a week

− Educating a million children will cost less than one half % of annual education budget

� Anyone can adopt a village school for

− Rs $10,000 in total or

− Rs $2000 a year or

− Rs $200 a month

� One can become a Social Entrepreneur with an investment of $2000earn $200 a month or scale it up as you please

� One can raise money through e.g., ICICI’s Social Venture Fund and several similar Funds available through various other FIs

What is the Potential?

� We have 600,000 villages

� Roughly 500,000 have the population averaging 1000

− They typically have less than 50 children in primary school

� Aggregating at 10 villages offers

− About 500 students

− Up to $3000 pm gross revenue

� Aggregating Village Level SEs

− About 5000 coordinators or second order SEs

− Revenue potential :$6000+ pm

� And so on..

A modern “Shantiniketan” “XO Outside”

Learning under a Tree

•For the Child•Sun-friendly•Rain-proof•Dust-proof•Shock-proof•A couple Watts of power•Solar powered•Tablet – like•Open Source - Sugar•Free Microsoft Windows•And MS Office

Mechanical Design� No moving parts

− No hard drive, no fans

� Droppable

− Extra rigid shell

− Bumper (replacable)

− Shock mounted LCD

� Moisture/dust/dirt resistant

− Keyboard

− USB, microphone etc - protected

� Connector reinforcement

� Transformer hinge

802.11s

802.11s

Terrestrial

wireless links

(wifi, wimax)

Cellular

packet-data link

(2.5G, 3G)

Optional

distribution

network

Internet

802.11sEvery Laptop Connects

With Each Other

Without a Server

or Wi-fi

Every Laptop

connects to Internet

With a built-in Wi-Fi

5 years of text books* deforestation* chemicals to make paper* distribution costs

Environmental

vs

1 laptop* RoHS compliant ++* 2W power (human recharge)* 5 year life (including batteries)* recyclable

Financial Model7.

To reach the least developed countries and get laptops

into the hands of the poorest children, a new model

of partnership (and funding) is needed.

To reach the least developed countries and get

laptops into the hands of the poorest children, a

new model of partnership (and funding) is

needed.

“Give” Model

� Options�..

1. Give to a child

2. Give Many

3. School Giving (Min. 100 Laptops)

4. Corporate Giving

5. Adopt a Village, a Block, a District�

Progress so far7

• Argentina 100 K

• Turkey 100 K

• Uruguay 750 K

• Ethiopia 50 K

• Peru 1000 K

• Mexico 250 K

• 1200 K built and

deployed to date

LAUNCH COUNTRIES in ‘07/’08:

MilestonesNov 2006 Laptops first available (beta)Nov 2007 Mass production rampYear 1 1.2 Million units shipped

Year 2 3-5 Million units - > OLPC/United Nations collaboration

Challenges ahead..

� Changing the mindset

� Persuading the leadership

� Cajoling the Corporations

� Informing the Socially Oriented

� Requesting the Affluent

� Empowering the motivated..

The Book of the Future7.

Sharing in the Future

Key Partners from Private & Public Sectors