Most “majority world” countries (a more appropriate term than Third World) face numerous levels of inequalities in comparison to “minority world” countries: foreign debts, unequal commercial rules (agricultural subsidies for example), access to education etc. In the last 2 decades, a new form of inequality appeared: the digital breach.  It is considerably more difficult for poorer countries to access up to date technology and offer computer knowledge to its citizen. Furthermore, the digital breach also exists within these societies, for the lower classes have no or little access to computers and the Internet.

Realizing that the digital breach was hurting Uruguay’s economy and was expanding social inequalities, since a considerable percentage of Uruguayans did no have access to Internet or computer resources, the government of Tabaré Vazquez (Frente Amplio – left wing) launched the Plan Ceibal in 2007. The idea is quite simple but complicated to put in practice. The Uruguayan government gave a simple laptop to every single elementary school student and every teacher of the country. Between 2007 and 2009, they procured laptops to all 350 000 students and installed Wi-fi connections in every elementary school.

The objectives behind the Plan Ceibal are obviously educational: limit the digital breach, facilitate access to Internet and computer tools. This way, Uruguay hopes the new generation will not fall behind in terms of computer knowledge, now an essential part of education and a crucial prerogative to access quality jobs. The Plan Ceibal is even more ambitious. It proposes a partial solution to social exclusion, to the depreciation of public school and community isolation.

Since children can bring their laptops home, the intent is to facilitate access for parents as well. So far it is working; it is now very common to see adults using laptops on the porch of their houses (to get better signals) to get recipes, read the newspaper or whatever one wants to do with a computer.

Traditionally, Uruguay has enjoyed the best public education system in Latin America, until recently it was very common for middle class and even high income families to send their kids to public school.  Thanks to economic problems and some neo-liberal reforms in the 90s, the public system has lost some of its appeal and we have seen a growing gap between private and public schools. In this context, the Plan Ceibal contributes to making public schools more attractive and better adapted to the 21^st century.

Even though this initiative has clearly a top-down approach, the idea is to capacitate the teachers and offer new tools for impoverished communities. The biggest impacts of the Plan Ceibal are seen in rural communities and low incomes neighborhood. Obviously, a better access to Internet and computer tools does not solve complex social problems, however, it does facilitate daily lives (looking for a job, stay informed). More importantly, it contributes to reintegrate many communities that were excluded from a crucial part of society. Like it or not, Internet has become a dominant force in our lives, and those individuals and communities who do not have access, become second-class citizens and irrelevant communities to the rest of the world.

In general, I am very skeptical of the overemphasis our education system (in Canada) puts on ICT (Information and Communication Technology), since the vast majority of Canadian children/teenagers manage very well computer tools while many have clear weaknesses in terms of reading and writing (I would also say thinking…). However, in the Uruguayan case, the Plan Ceibal seems to be a very positive initiative and will contribute to a better integration of many communities that have been left behind. It has engendered numerous reactions in other South American countries. For example, Argentina has decided to develop a similar plan of its own. Hopefully, this initiative from this small country will contribute in battling the digital breach in the whole region.