Brazil will distribute 150,000 laptops to 300 schools in the country in 2010 through the project "One Laptop per Student", local media reported Thursday.

The project, which will cost the federal government 82 million reais (US$47.6 million), has been stalled since 2008 when products made by Comsat, winner of the government bidding, failed evaluation tests by Brazil's Ministry of Education.

In the government's final appointment, the CCE company, runner-up in the bidding, will replace Comsat and is set to provide the first 3,000 laptops to be used for teachers training in 30 days. Each laptop will cost about 550 reais (US$319).

Schools will begin receiving the computers after carrying out training for teachers on notebook use and achieving wireless Internet access.

The project is now carried out in schools in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Sao Paulo, Tocantins and the Federal District.

The government is also working on ways to facilitate the purchase of school-use laptops in other parts of the country. In December 2009, an interim injunction granted tax exemption for computers to be used in Brazilian schools.

(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2010)