Hi,
I have been out of this area for a while, and would like
to hear from people about who work with computer
infrastructure for rural schools, including educational
content. Here is some background:
1. A rural school in Orissa wants to provide 1-2 computers
for the children there, ranging from primary to class X.
They have spoken to Hole-in-the-wall (HIWEL), but the
quoted costs seem high to me. Would love to hear from
people who have worked with HIWEL.
(a) The school is sort of remote, but not very much so.
A major highway is some 15km away, and a largish
town is some 5km away, with reasonable road connectivity.
They have wireless Internet access, and I am checking
up on the electricity situation.
(b) The costs are quoted as at least 2.03 lakhs for a two-
window HIWEL setup. They claim that the content is free,
but where is the 2-lakh cost going into, then?
(c) Maintenance costs also seem high: 25K/computer annually.
I would have been sort of OK with a 25K annual cost for the
entire facility, regardless of the number of computers. If
anyone has figures on what such support costs, that would
be great.
2. I really dislike the idea of proprietary content. Would like
to hear from people who have actually set up similar content
for schools, ideally in more detail than a basic games,
multimedia, plus WIkipedia setup.
Regards,
Gora
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