The problem with governments handling this stuff, is the people who make these choices never think long term, they think only of what is good for their image right now.
E.g., some local schools have ordered ipads for all of the students to use in class, after a round 2 years, most of them are not working, the remaining ones have a host of issues such as pressure marks on the screen from people pushing it too hard, scratches, and crap battery life because they are run all day. When I was doing student teaching, and wanted to use the tablets, the cooperating teacher recommended that I avoid them since they are too unreliable, and don't last long enough to get any work done.
The principal got tricked into getting a ton of non serviceable tablets that ended up being junk after about 2 years.
How much do they normally spend on paper, books, crayons, wooden counting blocks, uniforms, sports kit, designer school bags, etc. every two years?
Put it in perspective and a tablet every two years might not be a big deal (so long as they get good value from it before it breaks).
(Although I'm sure there's a bigger problem lurking underneath: They'll be totally screwed on price for all the special educational apps that the kids will need)
Yep, they get screwed on licensing, and it doesn't replace textbooks or writing supplies, it is used as a supplement to a lesson. Other than that, schools mandate writing across the curriculum, then lots of textbook use.
To make matters worst, they are less function than the heavily discounted lenoovo notebook PCs that the schools typically get.
Before the tablet craze, the schools would get thinkpad x130e laptops which cost a little under $200 each after the educational discount. The batteries were removable, so the schools simply stocked a case of replacements, and depending on use (the upper grades use them more), they would simply swap the batteries a week before the next school year started.
On the other hand, apple doesn't even give a discount on their tablets, and their iMacs only a very tiny discount, the schools pay a ton for them, and they don't stand up to the abuse.
For the tablets, most of them simply sit in the armored storage case, but never get replaced or serviced, since they can't really be serviced. The IT support services for the schools pretty much want nothing to do with them.
Other than that,it is easy to trick the administrative staff into ordering a ton of them because many of them may already have an iphone or an ipad, and they will get suckered into seeing all of the educational "benefits" of using them in the classroom to enhance lessons.
Sadly li-ion batteries that become frustrating to use after 500-700 charge cycles, are simply not fit for a school environment; same for touch screen displays.
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On a side note, for solar roads, they will have trouble when it snows.
After the last large snow fall in NY, we have spots like this on the roads.
As soon as the snow begins to fall, trucks flood the streets, dumping salt, then when the snow begins to pile up, the plows come out and they scrape over the streets, while a salt dispensor dumps the large rock salt material, or even sand and larger rock material if the salt is not effective in handling the snow and ice (in order to avoid traction issues for cars and trucks on the road).
What needs to be determined is how the panels will stand up to that type of abuse.
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