Yes but can you really see the type of people who these laptops go to (that is, the ones with no money and the kids are probably doing bad in school) going to a library to work on school projects? Maybe it's just a cultural difference but in schools over here no one would use the library unless we had a class there.
Yeah, I can see what you are saying, but I wouldn't mind betting that a majority of these people will not use the facility for school projects and if they haven't flogged the computer, they will spend all day chatting to people on it instead.
And while you can't condemn the scheme, because in theory it's providing a necessary learning tool to those who can't provide it for themselves, you do wish the government would think about huge money schemes first.
I don't disagree with providing something like a computer to disadvantaged people. But why does it have to be in their home? If it is in an accessible place to start with, it benefits more people and arguably more opportunities will be available for training and help from staff at such places. You could also block certian things like porn and chat sites more easily as well as provide antivirus protection (something I am betting most people who haven't got a computer know nothing about).
I agree with custard, the people who would sell the laptops weren't likely to benefit from them anyway.
No matter how hard a government tries, they won't be able to build a policy robust enough to stop this from happening. At least if they are in an accessible place, you can restrict their useage to what they were meant for in the first place.
What they needed to do was maybe even just glance towards an IT department for a solution to make the laptops hard to sell. It would have been far brighter to give them the laptop instead of the money so they could put limitations on it instead of letting people buy extravagant laptops. What's wrong with just giving them a netbook? I'm using one right now and it was the best $500 I have spent in a long time.
Although this is a stupid idea from the government anyway, I can see why they would be more inclined to give the money. With the means testing in place, the whole department for posting the money, the department in charge of the rubber stamp saying "yes", etc already going to be there, the scheme would cost more to run than it was handing out if this extra layer was then added.