Laptops all round for St Vincent and the Grenadines

“ONE laptop per child” has long been a rallying cry for education campaigners determined to bring the benefits of technology to schoolchildren in the developing world.

Now Dennis Publishing, the company behind The Week, has turned that goal into reality in the Caribbean nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The deal was brokered by Felix Dennis, the chairman of the company, who lives in Mustique, one of the islands that makes up the Grenadines.

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“After rounds of negotiation – involving the bearded British media mogul, the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Microsoft, the Taiwanese computer giant Acer, the former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his troubled successor Nicholas Maduro - each one of the 12,500 secondary school children in the island country is to be given a new laptop computer,” The Independent reports.

According to IT Pro, the idea came about last year when St Vincent’s prime minister sought advice from Dennis about equipping the country’s schools with new computers.

“Felix instructed a team at Dennis Publishing - which is the UK's largest publisher of technology titles - to bring the scheme to life, whilst ensuring criteria such as usage, longevity and security were met,” it reports. “Manageability of the technology was also key and it needed to free from the shackles of traditional IT management demands.”

Dennis publishing said it would share the results of the program over the coming year.