A doormen rings the bell for the beginning of the class in an elementary school in Skopje in this September 1, 2006 file photo. The prime minister pledged a computer for every student during an election campaign earlier this year in the landlocked Balkan country. Macedonia aspires to join the European Union in coming years, and hopes technology will help lift its economy. But as is so often the case with ambitious plans to educate or feed the world through the help of technology, the gulf between the idea and reality is as wide as the distance from Silicon Valley to what was once Yugoslavia's poorest republic. Reuters Pictures 2 months ago

A doormen rings the bell for the beginning of the class in an elementary school in Skopje in this September 1, 2006 file photo. The prime minister pledged a computer for every student during an election campaign earlier this year in the landlocked Balkan country. Macedonia aspires to join the European Union in coming years, and hopes technology will help lift its economy. But as is so often the case with ambitious plans to educate or feed the world through the help of technology, the gulf between the idea and reality is as wide as the distance from Silicon Valley to what was once Yugoslavia's poorest republic.

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