Laptops Come to Schools in the Andes

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That's the case of Arahuay student Antony Moreira Melchor, 13. The grandson of a small fruit producer, he now wants to go to college to become an accountant. The laptops, offering access to the Internet, make "stupendous" learning tools, he says enthusiastically.

When Becerra took some of the kids to the capital to demonstrate the laptops, one of the computers suffered a technical glitch. An 11-year-old boy grabbed a Phillips-head screwdriver, started dismantling the laptop, breathed puffs of air on a component to remove some dust, replaced it, and the computer began to work again. "The kid was so confident about what he was doing, I couldn't believe it," Becerra says.

Legislative Mandate

Impressed, the Peruvian Congress gave the green light for the nationwide introduction of laptops in primary schools. "We know the laptops aren't going to solve all of our problems in education, but we think they will prove to be a useful tool for motivating students and teachers alike—to learn, to do research, and to innovate," says legislator Pedro Santos, president of the education commission.

Some observers are excited by the prospect of harnessing technology to effect dramatic social change in the South American nation. "These laptops will be a tremendous accelerator of unstoppable change in Peru—in the educational system, in migration and in urbanization," says Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, author of The Mystery of Capital, who is known internationally for his groundbreaking research into how the world's poor, living at the margins of society, can be incorporated into the "formal" economy.

The laptops could be the tool that allows disadvantaged children, long ignored by the government, to jump-start their education and break down societal barriers to forge their own futures. But de Soto warns the process could shake Peru's elitist society to the core. "It will probably accelerate rising expectations, which could produce mass migration to the cities and social upheaval, and that could make for a bumpy ride. But that can be good," he says. "After all, it's progress."

Reymundo Riveros, who teaches fifth and sixth grade in Luquia, welcomes the laptops as a useful teaching aid but says they'll be of little use in helping improve the lives of poor children unless the government takes other steps to reduce poverty, malnutrition, and unemployment. Riveros, 30, has his own computer at home, but school principal Pedro Santana, like many of Peru's public school teachers, can't afford to buy one. "Some teachers can't even buy proper clothing for themselves, much less a computer," says Santana.

A Threat to Some Teachers

That means many teachers don't know how to use a computer, which could be a source of tension as the government continues the rollout. "Often, the computers are received with great enthusiasm, but just as often, teachers view them with some concern," says Alberto Patiño, a professor of education at the Pontifical Catholic University of Lima, who previously directed a government program that started equipping public secondary schools with computer labs. (So far, just 3% of Peru's 90,000 public schools are connected to the Internet.) "They're afraid that the kids will whiz past them, and they aren't accustomed to children manipulating their own sources of information."

On the plus side, he says, "that provides a tremendous incentive for teachers to quickly master the technology themselves." The government now is offering teachers a $150 cash grant and a low-interest, four-year loan for those who want to buy their own computers.

Some are skeptical that the laptops will bear as much fruit as has been advertised. "Technology alone doesn't work miracles," says Patiño. Still, he believes the laptops offer valuable software and educational materials that should give poor, rural schoolchildren a real leg up.

Becerra says he views this as a unique opportunity to force change. To critics who say the laptops could "disrupt" Peru's educational system for good, he responds: "I certainly hope it will disrupt things! A country that ranks at the very bottom in people's perception of educational quality has to do something disruptive."

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Smith is BusinessWeek's Mexico bureau chief.