Education and Technology in Developing Countries

Technology is now contributing in a vital way to enhance the access to education for individuals who live in poor and developing nations. Many charitable organizations focus on providing infrastructure by which the lesser fortunate students may be able to gain access to educational literature. One Laptop Per Child project (OLPC) is an instance of such programs.

The OLPC foundation is founded by MIT Media Lab and numerous corporations too have lent their support to this cause. They have embarked on the mission to develop a 100 dollar laptop to be able to deliver educational software. In the year 2008, these laptops were available everywhere and were sold without profit. At times they were also given as donations.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development has taken the initiative called ‘e-school program’ which is aims to ensure that all the primary as well as high schools have adequate computer equipment, learning materials and access to the web within the next decade. is a venture which began under the support of former American president Bill Clinton. This project uses the web to enable individuals to co operate and assist in various issues pertaining to social development.

India too is focusing on developing technologies which will eventually supersede land based telephones and internet infrastructure. It aims to enable students to gain direct access to distance learning. In the year 2004, the EDUSAT program was launched by the Indian Space Research Organization. This communications satellite was able to provide access to educational material and literature to the entire nation at an affordable cost.