Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides)- Forty years since the Encyclical Populorum Progressio, with which Pope Paul VI underlined the importance of education for justice and development, underlining the growing disparity between rich and poor countries, a new disparity is affecting the poorest peoples. The “digital divide", produced by a lack of access to modern technology of information and communication.
One initiative to remedy this situation is a programme “One Laptop per Child", the focus of a Conference “Bold innovation in the field of education", held yesterday 29 October in Rome. Speakers included Cardinal Paul Poupard, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Culture, and Prof. Nicholas Negroponte, founder of Media Lab MIT (Massachussetts Institute of Technology) and one of the promoters of "One Laptop Per Child Foundation". The conference was organised by the International Commission for Justice, Peace and Protection of Creation, the Commission for Education, SEDOS and the Communications office of the Society of Jesus.
“The Conference took its cue from the 40th anniversary of the Encyclical Populorum Progressio by Paul VI. Cardinal Poupard, at the time a young monsignore, was the one who presented the innovative document, which underlined the importance of education in view of justice and development. The document is still valid today: “The present situation should be faced with courage and its injustices must be fought and overcome. Development demands bold changes, profoundly innovative” the organisers reported.
“One Laptop Per Child” programme intends to produce and distribute inexpensive laptops, portable computers, initially for as little as 100 dollars, but the price has since increased, in order to guarantee every child in the world, especially those in developing countries, access to knowledge and modern tools of education, starting from three simple ideas: that the only way to bring poor countries closer to the development of the rich world is to close the knowledge gap; that this process must start from the bottom with children; that the computer is the principal carrier of knowledge. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 30/10/2007 righe 29 parole 359)
