Does Providing Laptops Improve Educational Outcomes?
The One Laptop Per Child program was supposed to bridge the digital divide for children in developing countries.
To assess the long-term effects of the program, one study performed
a large-scale randomized evaluation of the OLPC program implemented by the Peruvian government in rural primary schools, using administrative and survey data from 2007 to 2019.
The study found that the program had
no effects on students’ exam or test scores or on their likelihood of completing primary or secondary school or enrolling in a university.… [T]he program [also] reduced the fraction of primary students who advanced to the next grade by 1 percentage point between 2009 and 2016.
Despite lengthy teacher trainings,
the program had no significant effects on teachers’ digital skills … [and it] led to limited academic use of laptops and generated few benefits beyond basic digital literacy, which partly explains the absence of effects on achievement and attainment.
