from Hacker News

Evidence from the One Laptop per Child program in rural Peru

by danso on 12/7/25, 7:56 PM with 119 comments

• by martey on 12/8/25, 12:26 AM

  A lot of comments here seem to suggest that we should discount or ignore this paper because the OLPC program had other benefits (increasing uptake of lower cost laptops worldwide, giving children computer skills, etc.). This is a reasonable argument assuming that most people have only read the free abstract, but this isn't the conclusion that the authors come in the actual paper. Instead, they suggest that the program might have been more successful with increased teacher training and internet access in schools.

  I was able to access the NBER version of the paper, but it looks like working copies are also available in a number of other locations:

    - https://publications.iadb.org/en/laptops-long-run-evidence-one-laptop-child-program-rural-peru
    - https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5391874
    - https://www.ofermalamud.com/research

• by aserr on 12/7/25, 11:02 PM

  There’s a book, The Charisma Machine (https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262537445/the-charisma-machine/), that examines outcomes from multiple OLPC initiatives and covers many of the failings.

• by bawolff on 12/7/25, 11:20 PM

  I think the (overly utopian and unrealistic) ideological basis was not that students would neccesarily do better in traditional learning environments, but that they would become better self-learners and be able to teach themselves things that are relavent to their own needs which may differ from the official curriculum.

  I doubt that happened, but i don't think this study would capture that if it did.

• by hamdingers on 12/8/25, 12:03 AM

  OLPC may not have helped many rural children directly, but it did inspire an entire class of computers (netbooks/chromebooks) that made computing more accessible for children and adults across the world. For that reason, I think it was a worthwhile pursuit.

• by diziet on 12/7/25, 10:32 PM

  An unfortunate yet unsurprising report to those familiar with the literature on cognitive ability. I too donated to similar programs. I hope better computer skills make some sort of earning impact, though the prevalence of smart phones probably makes a bigger difference.

• by ChrisArchitect on 12/7/25, 10:22 PM

  A similar NPR report from 2012:

  One Child, One Laptop ... And Mixed Results In Peru

  https://www.npr.org/2012/10/13/162719126/one-child-one-lapto...

• by anonymousiam on 12/7/25, 10:10 PM

  Sad if true. I was a donor, and the program had good intentions.

• by rowanG077 on 12/7/25, 10:38 PM

  I'm not sure why people here call it a failure. The children who got a laptop have reached superior skill in using computers, while it seems like not sacrificing any other capability. That seems like a great result, skilled computer use is a highly valuable skill.

• by true2octave on 12/7/25, 10:54 PM

  AI will have similar effect in general population

  No significant effect except in the minority who have the drive and capabilities to leverage new technology to achieve their goals

  There is always a bias on the effects of new technology because the early adopters are already highly capable people

• by lathiat on 12/8/25, 1:36 AM

  I still have one of the early green OLPC laptops kicking around that I got at linux.conf.au 2005, in part because they were (or were thinking of) making use of avahi as part of the mesh stuff. They are quite fun to look at.

  The project was quite interesting and exciting, and I really miss the era of custom linux desktops, phones, tablets etc being viable projects, it's a shame the project never really directly worked out.

• by cbsmith on 12/7/25, 11:37 PM

  I think the interesting thing is they saw significant improvement in computer skills, but no significant improvement in academic performance. It suggests to me that the academic program, or at least the measures from it, didn't factor in computer skills, which seems a mistake given their relevance.

• by hereme888 on 12/8/25, 2:52 AM

  If raw cognitive skills didn't improve, but productivity improved due to improved digital skills, then that's a national-level win.

• by dev1ycan on 12/8/25, 12:11 AM

  What did anyone expect? really, many children especially in the Andes suffer from lead intoxication from mining, fruits and vegetables for export are premium quality while the ones for local consumption are bathed in pesticides and other chemicals, kids in the amazon suffer from parasites and other illnesses, tons of regions have malnutrition... etc.

  Then there's the fact that Peru is massive (compared to Europe) and most of it lacks internet connectivity, only just recently Starlink started giving newer phones SMS capabilities outside of coverage, but that's as far as it'll go and only for modern expensive phones.

  Those kids are not going to open a laptop and have a good time attempting to learn something (if they can even reach the internet), I myself have ADHD and it took me so long to even search and discover khan academy (let's not even begin with how much worse sites like Khan Academy are when you don't have the primary instructor, giving said lessons), add in low energy/inability to concentrate or want to do academic work with memory issues due to intoxication and or malnutrition and... yeah, good luck with that.

  There is high amount of talent in Peru, you can tell because there's government programs to give gifted students from public schools free scholarship to private universities and they all end up top of their class, the hardest university to enter into in Peru happens to be a public university too (national university of engineering), it's exam is pretty fucking hard for someone who just graduated high school and even then the vast majority of students who enter come from poor backgrounds.

• by ChrisArchitect on 12/7/25, 10:19 PM

  OLPC? like, the Negroponte thing from way back? That was dead in water within 5 years or so? (As sad as that was) Just surprised to see a study/report on it this many years later.