Students at remote Australian schools start receiving laptops

There are concerns that students that are in remote parts of Australia are disadvantaged compare to other kids due to lack of broadband and technology, but this is something that the Rudd government is trying to tackle, with part of the measures including the handout of laptops to students in such areas.

Concerns have been expressed by officials in Australia for some time with regards to the disadvantages suffered by students that go to school and live in remote areas of the country compared to other students, and this is because of lack of educational resources such as broadband and other forms of technology. This is something that the Rudd government is working towards tackling, and has recently started with the handout of laptops for students in these areas.

As part of the One Laptop Per Child Australia initiative which is now underway two hundred laptops have recently been delivered to a remote school in the Northern Territory, and the delivery of the laptops was welcomed by the Minister for Employment Participation Mark Arbib. He said that the initiative was aimed at providing around fifteen thousand laptops to students in remote areas.

Senator Arbib stated: “One Laptop Per Child Australia wants to help the 400,000 children who live in remote communities by providing them with purpose-built, high quality XO laptops, loaded with educational software. The Commonwealth Bank, Telstra and News Limited have joined up as corporate partners in this goal and I congratulate them for their commitment to delivering laptops to children in remote areas. The support of Australia’s corporate community is vital in closing the gap in education and employment outcomes for Indigenous Australians, who are represented strongly in remote communities.”

Officials also said that the Rudd government had allocated billions of dollars towards closing the gap and providing students with equal advantages, and this included around one hundred million dollars towards the implementation of broadband for schools across Australia.

Source – Deewr.gov.au