HAVE no fear, the Government-provided laptops will be located if stolen.

This was the assurance given by Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh, in a two-page advertisement placed in the newspaper yesterday.

The laptops, which will be provided to successful SEA pupils, will all be outfitted with Computrace software, Gopeesingh said.

This software allows "us to spot the location of a stolen computer by tracing the IP (Internet Protocol) address when it logs on. And it permits us to remote-wipe, which erases all material off a stolen computer", Gopeesingh stated.

Schools will also provide "a safe-place to store computers for those children who prefer not to travel publicly with them", Gopeesingh said.

"Our children are our most precious assets and we've developed plans to roll out in protection of their well-being," the advertisement stated.

Government will also monitor and control the use of the laptops.

"There will be a facility to monitor and control content, via a Government network-filtering system and web-filtering," the advertisement said.

"And if nevertheless any anti-social patterns begin to show themselves, and either or both the children and the computers come under threat, we will activate Adjustment Action plans, or disciplinary procedures as may be needed."

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has been awarded an $83 million contract to supply 24,000 fully-loaded laptops for distribution to successful SEA pupils.

"The impact of the computer comes home to us when we think of how tedious the same exercise would have been in the old days of being paper-bound. An entire new and exciting world is opened up for students who are no longer at any one-on-one disadvantage when it comes to accessing knowledge and helping themselves grow," Gopeesingh stated of the Government's decision to provide the laptops.