KIGALI - As the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Program - an initiative designed to provide primary school children with laptops - gains momentum, schools countrywide are set to receive more laptops once the process of software installation is complete.

According to Nkubito Bakuramutsa, the OLPC Coordinator at the Ministry of Education, so far, 10,000 computers have been distributed in 23 schools, and the process is continuing.

"What we are doing now is to boost the XO laptops with the latest firmware that enhances the machines with the ability to operate with ease,” Bakuramutsa said, adding that the target is to distribute 50, 000 laptops to 150 schools in all districts countrywide by the end of December this year.

"Our technicians are updating the Linux operating system gnome user interface which makes it easier for students and teachers to run programmes and courses,” he explained.

"With this process, the technicians are reflashing, updating and testing an average of 2000 computers a day.”
Bakuramutsa pointed out that the ability to reflash firmware, load new operating system and content on 2,000 laptops a day brings Rwanda close to the manufacturing of the XO laptops.

Masevelio Basil Kamanzi, the XO laptop technicians’ team leader, said all the machines are being entered into a national inventory system which captures the laptop serial numbers and associates

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) programme, a government initiative, was launched in 2008 with the aim of providing all primary school children in Rwanda with the important learning tool.

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