Pacific

Cook Islands education ministry says not enough homework done on kids' laptops

10:22 am on 19 June 2009

The Secretary of the Cook Islands Education Ministry says not enough research was done on the suitability of a computer programme for children before introducing it to the Cook Islands.

The programme is part of a two and a half million US dollar 'one laptop per child' trial being rolled out across the region by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

The Ministry has been criticised for a delay in getting the state-of-the-art laptops to Mitiaro school in the outer islands but John Herrmann says it has been investigating the sustainability of the programme.

He says that may have taken longer than desired but it's work the SPC should have done.

"The diversity of the region in terms of infrastructure that's in the different countries, it's a huge range, from some which have reasonably well, well-established infrastructure, there are many which do not have these resources and it's a false assumption to suggest in this experiment that somehow, one size fits all."

John Herrmann, the Cook Islands Education Secretary.