Computer Aid on $3 software: where will all the PCs come from?

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 02 May 2007 10:01

Your IT - Home IT

The head of a leading international aid organization has criticised the Microsoft plan to provide cheap US$3 software to elligible schools in developing countries that buy PCs for their students, saying the cost of hardware is prohibitive.

Tony Roberts, CEO of UK-based Computer Aid International, which claims to be the world’s largest and most experienced not-for-profit supplier of computers to developing countries believes the Microsoft initiative is only a partial solution.

“While we welcome any initiative that helps provide schools in developing countries with access to affordable ICT. Microsoft plans to offer a range of its software products to schools in developing countries for a cut-down price of $3 – but this begs the question of where the hardware will come from?" says Roberts.

“Without the hardware it’s like donating the tyres but not the tractor. Currently the price of a new PC in developing countries is £600, typically higher than the average annual income per head in countries such as Malawi where it is £300 and Zambia which is £500.

“Because the cost of new PCs is often higher than school budgets can manage, schools have to rely upon not-for-profit organisations to provide them with the hardware that they require.

“It is essential that the massive excess of unwanted ICT in rich developed countries is transferred to the most disadvantaged economies - if global inequalities are to be reduced."

Roberts believes schools should have a choice of what software should be pre-installed on recycled PCs they receive.

“To date Computer Aid has sent over 88,000 PCs to schools in more than 100 developing countries. Computer Aid lets the recipient school decide whether they require Windows or open-source software either of which can be pre-installed so that the PC can be used out of the box.
 
“The $3 Microsoft software is a welcome part of the solution. Yet there is an urgent need to dramatically increase the percentage of the two million working PCs that companies will decommission in 2007 to charities like Computer Aid International. Currently only five per cent are donated to charitable causes.”