India rejects One Laptop Per Child (Register)

Posted Jul 27, 2006 2:01 UTC (Thu) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link]

> you could probably get one teacher/classroom for a year for $100.

At prestigious city schools in India where most middle-class children
study, salaries are comparable with Western rates of pay; but village
public school teachers' wages are only Rs1200-2500 per month.

So yes, one of these laptops would cost a teacher's wage -- not for a
whole year, but for a couple of months.

On the other hand printed textbooks can be comparatively expensive;
students can be charged Rs500 (approx $US11) for a single book. Many
schools make buying the books new each year mandatory. This may be in
lieu of fees, which aren't charged by public schools, so it probably
doesn't reflect the actual cost of the books to the school.

http://hrw.org/reports/2005/education0905/4.htm#_ftnref15