Costa Rica Promised $100 Computers

STUDENTS across Costa Rica may soon have laptop computers in their classrooms through a program from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the daily Al Día reported.

Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT media lab, told the daily that the program he founded, “One Laptop per Child,” is designed for developing countries like Costa Rica.

The computers will cost $100 – a large savings owing to cuts in the sales and distribution processes – and will be distributed through government and nongovernmental organizations, the daily reported. They will not be sold to the general public.

Organizers will not determine how many computers Costa Rica will receive, and when, until May 2006. Production of the computers will begin at the end of 2006 and will amount to 15 million units.