Only 50% of pupils to get tablets next semester

[admin]

About half of first-graders will be handed tablet computers in the next semester and not all of them as has been planned under a government project, according to a senior Education Ministry official.

Permanent secretary for education Sasithara Pichaichannarong said yesterday that about 500,000 tablet computers would be purchased for distribution to Prathom 1 students in the first semester of the 2012 academic year starting in May.

"Not all of the Prathom 1 pupils will get the tablets," she said after meeting with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to report about the progress of the government project to distribute tablets to all first-graders.

She also said that the Education Ministry would request another Bt1.2 billion from the government for the purchase of 400,000 more tablet computers to be distributed to Grade 1 pupils in the second semester of the 2012 academic year starting in October.

More money would be required to buy the hand-held computers for first-graders in the 2013 academic year, as this year's Grade 1 pupils would also bring the tablets with them when they move on to Grade 2 next year, according to the Education Ministry's top permanent official.

She saw no problem with the failure to distribute tablets to all the first-graders. "There will be no damage done. In the initial phase, use of tablets will be limited to a closed system or offline. It is because most schools still have no Internet connections."

The Education Ministry expected to acquire the first batch of 150,000 Chinese-made tablet PCs in late April, and two more shipments of 100,000 and 200,000 units in May and June respectively, according to the senior official. She said the ministry expected to get between 1,000 and 2,000 tablets from China in a month or two for testing of the hardware and its compatibility with the ministry's software.

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Edited February 9, 2012 by FarangFarang