Computer labs in developing countries

In the earlier post on laptops in schools, I should have linked to Charles Kenny's post from almost four months ago. In one section of his linky post, we find this:

Take education programs. Computer labs in developing countries carry annual costs of around $78-$104 per student at the level of one computer per twenty students. Compare that to annual discretionary budgets (what is left over after paying for salaries, needed to cover items such as chalk, books and buildings) of $5 per student per year for primary schools in low income countries. Beyond expense, returns don't appear to be dramatic enough to justify diverting resources from alternate, more suitable interventions.

Do read Kenny's post. Among the many things he covers, you will find something interesting about the now famous 'hole in the wall' experiment.