Epress.am News from Armenia
The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic will provide one laptop per child as part of a new private-public effort to promote education in information technology, reports Asbarez.com.
As part of a deal signed Thursday between Karabakh Prime Minister Ara Harutyunyan and Argentinian-Armenian entrepreneur Eduardo Eurnekian, every elementary school student in Karabakh will receive one laptop computer loaded with educational software.
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston (MIT), will furnish Karabakh’s elementary schools with laptop computers and connect them to the Internet through wireless networks to be installed in their facilities.
Karabakh’s government welcomed the initiative, spearheaded by Eurnekian, and pledged to make telecommunications interconnection available in all schools to enhance the educational impact of the OLPC program.
To realize the project, Eurnekian asked the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) to assist in the implementation by undertaking the responsibility of providing the necessary on-the-ground support to ensure its success.
“The world community sees Nagorno Karabagh within the context of war and regional conflict. People fail to take note of the children who are born and live there,” said Eurnekian, whose company manages Armenia’s national postal service, Haypost, and the Zvartnots airport in Yerevan. “These children are entitled to the universal right of education and access to information.”
“Through OLPC, I intend to bridge the gap and give the children of Karabakh the opportunity to receive the best education the world has to offer,” Eurnekian said.