Then President Bharrat Jagdeo presenting a laptop to students of the Abrams Zuil Secondary School, at the launch of the One Laptop Per Family initiative in January 2011
Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo has taken to task the A Partnership For National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Administration over the dismantling of the One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) initiative and replacing it with the One Laptop Per Teacher (OLPT) programme recently launched by President David Granger, saying that it will defeat the aim of bringing all Guyanese into the Information Communications Technology loop.
Jagdeo while responding to an address to parliamentarians by President Granger during Thursday’s sitting of the National Assembly told a news conference on Thursday that with the new initiative that was launched on October 5, 2016 to mark World Teacher’s Day, will disenfranchise many households, while others could potentially benefit from multiple computers.
Jagdeo, while acknowledging that there were some problems with the OLPF initiative, including instances where computers ended up in the hands of those who should not have benefitted, said that the programme would have provided a wider ICT coverage in the country.
President David Granger launches One Laptop Per Teacher initiative on World Teacher’s Day, October 5, 2016
He explained that the idea was to ensure that at least 100,000 poor families receive a computer, including families of teachers.
The former president, the brainchild behind the OLPF initiative which was launched back in 2011, said with the OLPT the access will be limited to a few households.
“If you have three teachers from a single household, you will have three computers in one household but you would not have in another household that doesn’t have a teacher, but if every family got a computer, then every member of that family including the teacher would have had access to it,” Jagdeo explained.
The Opposition Leader also explained that the OLPF initiative also catered for at least 100 Amerindian communities having access to computers and internet service as part of bridging the digital divide between the coastland and the hinterland, but expressed dissatisfaction that under the current dispensation this would not be possible.
“2000 of the 100,000 (laptops) should have gone to 100 Amerindian villages that we prepared already the hubs for, etc, they are not getting those anymore,” Jagdeo said.
President Granger during his address, boasted that his government’s e-governance programme will eventually network all government agencies and facilitate efficient data-sharing between government agencies, with internet connectivity of government buildings be extended.
“Every government building – including airports, hospitals, markets, police stations, post offices and schools – will have access to the internet in coming years,” Granger told Government parliamentarians after an Opposition boycott of the speech.
But Jagdeo said that Granger’s pronouncement has no newness since already the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government was doing just that before it lost last year’s national elections, pointing to a programme with a Chinese technology company which was being rolled out.
“The US$30 million project with Huawei was to do a number of things, including connecting every government office. So when he (President Granger) says this about connecting post office and schools, hospitals, etc, that was a part of our project, it’s nothing new,” Jagdeo stated.
Jagdeo said the President’s talk about ICT development in Guyana were not based on his personal knowledge but rather, he was just reading a speech given to him, totally oblivious of the fact that his so-called announcements were not new.“When he comes and talk about ICT development, he is just repeating few of the PPP plans without having the comprehensive knowledge,” the former President stated. Jagdeo also accused the coalition government of taking a PPP/C-drafted bill to liberalise the local telecommunications sector to Parliament and had it passed as though it was the work of the coalition government.
