Students get laptops in Dadeldhura
With the aim of improving education quality and access, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Nepal has provided laptop computers to school children and teachers of the government schools in Far Western Nepal.
WFP distributed laptops to 180 school children and teachers in grades two and three of three public schools in Dadeldhura on Sunday.
The laptops were distributed to Shree Samaijee Primary School in Samaijee VDC, Shree Janta Primary School in Kailpalmandu VDC, and Shree Janajyoti Primary School in Haamtad VDC as per the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) pilot project run by WFP in Dadeldhura district in partnership with Open Learning Exchange Nepal (OLE Nepal) and Nepal Government's Department of Education, according to a press release issued by WFP.
WFP also provides food assistance in the region.
"WFP’s school feeding programme plays a critical role in increasing school attendance," said WFP Country Representative, Richard Ragan. "Making laptop computers available will improve the quality of education that students receive while they are in school."
"The laptop project will improve the quality of teaching and provide teachers and students from these schools with new learning opportunities and resources, in an attempt to bridge the inequalities across Nepal’s different socio-economic populations," he added. "Through these computers, children will now have access to a wealth of high quality educational resources previously only available to children from private institutions in Kathmandu and in developed countries."
The laptops will contain curriculum-based interactive education materials in English, mathematics and Nepali that are developed by OLE Nepal. Thirteen teachers from the three schools have already been through a seven day residential training conducted in Dadeldhura by trainers from OLE Nepal and National Centre for Educational Development (NCED), WFP said in the release.
Under its Nepal Food for Education programme, WFP is feeding 236,000 school children in 11 districts in Nepal. Along with the laptops, each school will be equipped with a server containing an electronic library that students and teachers can access from the laptops. nepalnews.com Apr 28 09
