Congratulations to One Laptop Per Child for finally starting OLPC Argentina!

It was four years ago, that OLPC started talking about Argentina buying XO laptops - do you remember this map to the right? Oh how times (and countries) have changed since then. But OLPC can now say they have a Argentinian deployment with this news:

One Laptop per Child announced today the signing of an agreement with the province of La Rioja that will enable the delivery of 60,000 (sixty thousand) 1.5 to XO laptops primary school pupils in the province and their respective teachers.

Joaquín V. González, the government of La Rioja expected to provide laptops to all elementary school population in rural areas and urban areas, state-run, private and municipal. The delivery of the laptops will take place in stages and will begin in March with the start of the school year 2010.

This first OLPC Argentina activity is decent deployment - all 1.5 XO laptops with Sugar. Go Argentina!

Update!

Check out Daniel Drake's post on OLPC La Roja. He gives us 3 further reasons to celebrate:

The La Rioja project is interesting for a number of reasons; firstly, it's the first large-scale XO deployment in Argentina. Secondly, the scale itself is quite remarkable: each and every one of the 60,000 primary school children in the entire province will receive a laptop. Thirdly, it marks the worldwide debut of the XO-1.5 laptop, the brand new hardware offering from OLPC.