One Laptop per Child — Peru: Nationwide Evaluation of One-to-One Computing

Peru's One Laptop per Child rollout began in Arahuay village in 2007 and scaled nationally to over 800,000 children. The Inter-American Development Bank and Peru's Ministry of Education ran a randomised evaluation across 319 rural primary schools, comparing laptop recipients to a control group after 15 months.

The computer-to-student ratio in treatment schools rose from 0.12 to 1.18 and laptop use increased substantially, but the evaluation found no measurable effect on enrollment or on math/language test scores. It did find some positive effects on general cognitive skills (Raven's Progressive Matrices, verbal fluency, coding test).

A subsequent long-run follow-up found computer access durably improved computer skills but not cognitive skills. The study is widely cited as showing that expanding hardware access without matching pedagogy/teacher-training investment does not automatically raise academic performance.