New Education Minister Plans To Give 1 Million Computers To Students

[sriracha john]

Who is he? A husband of Thaksin's sister? Is that all?

My God, man... isn't that enough? Look at what he endures...

[Plus]

By the time they implement that project (if ever), a general PC people buy for themselves will have quadcore processors with ten times more power and ten times more RAM.

It will be comparable to mobile phones by that time. PDAs already have better specs than this "computer".

[Ricardo]

Perhaps the limited-trial I suggested,could be 100% but in just one province or region, to test whether the anticipated networking-benefits actually result ?

And run a control-test, giving a neighbouring province the same sum of money, to spend on extra teachers & other supplies, and see how much that helped students ?

I fully support increasing spending, on education in Thailand, it's just a matter of deciding on the best way to use the funds.

[chownah]

I'm struggling with ideas how to turn computer time with my kids on a real PC into an educational experience. They tend to switch to cartoonnetworks online java games in no time, and those games are very elaborate now, they demand lots of resources.

Well, I don't know what to tell you Plus. Either you don't know much about using computers in education (probably true) or using a real PC is not the answer (possibly true).....in either case it doesn't seem like you have much expertise in using computers as a tool in education. Maybe you should consider whether your advise is really credible on this issue....since by your own admissions you haven't seemed to figure it out yet. I'm not trying to flame you here. Education is a very complex issue and it always surprises me how so many people who have never even studied education as a discipline seem to think that they know all the answers....or even some of the answers. Everyone seems to be an expert on education....makes me wonder why schools do such a bad job of it since EVERYONE knows the answers........ except evidentally the people running the schools....how is it that the people running the schools can be so dumb about education and the people who are casual observers of education see all the answers as obvious?

Chownah

[chownah]

By the time they implement that project (if ever), a general PC people buy for themselves will have quadcore processors with ten times more power and ten times more RAM.

It will be comparable to mobile phones by that time. PDAs already have better specs than this "computer".

Why does an educational computer need to have any more than the XO has already? Why do they need ten times more power? We don't expect the kids to be running photoshop on these things you know...and we don't even want them to be playing Duke Nukem. We don't expect kids to be running international corporate sized data bases nor do we expect them to be doing real time finite element modeling of fusion plasmas.....we don't expect them to be power multitasking.

What we do expect is they will be plagiarizing website while writing their reports....at least they will be learning how to find information even if they won't be learning to legitimately express their own opinons...not that I ever wrote anything of value in the pre computer days....I didn't. We expect them to learn how to keep a schedule maybe...easily done on any computer manufactured in the last 10 years but much much more meaningful if it is maintained on your own computer which you can take with you to home or school just like it is done in the real world. Keep a schedule only on some computer in a computer room at school is a phony experience and I think kids see that....most kids want the real thing and not an imitation experience....having their own laptop might just be real enough for them to get involved.... What about making some art?....ever get an idea for a picture and you had to wait until you get to the computer the next day (or next week if your computer lab time is limited) before you could try it?....not really what you want a budding artist to have to do....we hope that having these laptops will encourage spontenaity and learn how to spell which is something I never learned how to do and yes, indeed, the XO has enough resources for a spell checker...and you know there will always be some of the higher powered computers around for the kids to use on the few times when they would need it.

of course some kids will do nothing with them....probably most kids won't do much....its that small percentage...maybe 10 percent or less who will take this and run with it.....that is where we hope the payback will be.

or maybe not...I don't know what would happen if they actually bought these things....and neither does anyone else.....anything that even has a hint of innovation in education will be criticized.

So what is the solution to the dilemma that Thai citizens are not equipped to vote sensibly...could it be that more education would make them better voters?.....could it be that being aware of the many channels of communication that are available for gathering information and oppinions would help people be better voters?

Chownah

Edited February 11, 2008 by chownah

[Plus]

Either you don't know much about using computers in education (probably true) or using a real PC is not the answer (possibly true).....in either case it doesn't seem like you have much expertise in using computers as a tool in education.

No, not much, just three years trying to get something usefull out of computer time at home with kids.

None of a dozen math teaching programs were intuitive enough to immediately address difficult areas, like a real person would do, and none offered anything more than a long list of problems you can find in any book, they just did it in flashy style, which often simply distracts kids from actual learning.

"Learning to read" programs are just crap, no match for reading real books with real people.

All of that software is for PC, you can buy it for 200 baht in any department store, and it won't run on the million computers they are going to buy.

What kids DO learn is how to operate computers - how to find programs, how to start them, how to finish, how to open files, how to safe them, how to find them again, how to shutdown safely, how to use Internet Explorer, how to find something on the Internet and so on. That seems to be what they are learning in computer lessons at school, too, on Windows, btw, that's what 99% of them will be using in real life, not dumbed down Feudora Linux circa 2004.

>>>>

"We expect them to learn how to keep a schedule" - Are you serious? You don't buy a million computers to learn to keep a schedule (and what's the importance in this country anyway?)

"most kids want the real thing and not an imitation" - THAT videogame like device is most certainly NOT the real thing they will be using later in life.

"ever get an idea for a picture and you had to wait until you get to the computer the next day" - errr, no, they can draw a lot better, far more creative pictures with pencils.

"learn how to spell" - using a spell checker? Not until it electrocutes you for every mistake. That's the point of spell checkers - you don't need to know how to spell anything, just pick from the list of suggestions.

"of course some kids will do nothing with them" money well spent! What if 90% will do nothing?

"anything that even has a hint of innovation in education will be criticized." - buying a million of flashy toys with no idea what possible benefits they will bring is NOT and innovation.

[chownah]

I advise anyone reading the comments in the post above to please read my entire post...it is my opinion that in his response he has edited out information which is necessary to understand what I am trying to say and just reading the parts he has recreated will give you a false impression of what I'm trying to say.

Chownah

[Plus]

Or look at the bigger picture - you are trying to justify impromtu decision by brother of the wife of someone who held the post five years ago, to spend tens of billions of baht on buying some flashy toys without any idea how they are supposed to achieve unidentified goals.

As they say in Bangkok Post Database - because "it's for the Children", with big "c".

In a country with a shortage of funds, teachers, classrooms, Internet access, and even elictricity, why do they need to give a notebook to every child in the first place, let alone a shitty one?

[mogoso]

Yes..well now what's better?

A "quiet" and well-educated "civil" establishment that 'quietly' raids the cookie jar for their families via defence purchases or airplane purchases with billions skimmed, or a "loud and obnoxious" bunch that do the same with computers that would, eventually, end up in the hands of kids?

Now before you say it, yes the computers could be crap - but hey, so could the jets, rail cars or military equipment..!!

It's all same-same - -- so get over it. I know where I'd rather see the (partial) money spent! If it ends up in a classroom that's better than an army camp, nes't pas?

Actually I watched a story line on one of the US networks about the competition among the various mfg.s of these low cost computers, and they seemed to be very durable and usable machines. More power to the students rather than the military. It'll upset the demos and the military to no end and it'll do good for the poor of the country. Really good reasons for the demos to block it in congress, as it'll help the poor and rural who don't for them.

[chownah]

In a country with a shortage of funds, teachers, classrooms, Internet access, and even elictricity, why do they need to give a notebook to every child in the first place, let alone a shitty one?

I don't think there is a shortage of classrooms.

The XO's wireless web abilities will extend internet access...so that should be a good thing since you indicate that there is a shortage of internet access.

The XO can be powered by hand or foot so no power is needed so that should be a good think since you indicat that there is a shortage of power.

I'm not trying to justify impromptu decisions!!!! I'm trying to inform people about what the XO can do and how it was designed as an educational tool (unlike regular PC's) and also I'm trying to promote education. To a great extent the political problems in Thailand are a result of lack of education.....let's promote education. Seven billion baht would buy one million XO's (I think they are under $200 which means roughly 7,000 baht per unit) which is a tiny amount compared to a one trillion baht budget.

Chownah

[Deesurin]

throw this into the mix

By JOHN MARKOFF

Published: November 30, 2006

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — When computer industry executives heard about a plan to build a $100 laptop for the developing world’s children, they generally ridiculed the idea. How could you build such a computer, they asked, when screens alone cost about $100?

One Laptop Per Child

Michail Bletsas, the chief connectivity officer for One Laptop Per Child, plays with some potential computer users in Nigeria.

Mary Lou Jepsen, the chief technologist for the project, likes to refer to the insight that transformed the machine from utopian dream to working prototype as “a really wacky idea.”

Ms. Jepsen, a former Intel chip designer, found a way to modify conventional laptop displays, cutting the screen’s manufacturing cost to $40 while reducing its power consumption by more than 80 percent. As a bonus, the display is clearly visible in sunlight.

That advance and others have allowed the nonprofit project, One Laptop Per Child, to win over many skeptics over the last two and a half years. Five countries — Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria and Thailand — have made tentative commitments to put the computers into the hands of millions of students, with production in Taiwan expected to begin by mid-2007.

The laptop does not come with a Microsoft Windows operating system or even a hard drive, and the screen is small. And the cost is now closer to $150 than $100. But the price tag, even compared with low-end $500 laptops now widely available, transforms the economic equation for developing countries.

That has not prevented the effort, conceived by Nicholas Negroponte, a prominent computer researcher, from becoming the focal point of a debate over the value of computers to both learning and economic development.

The detractors include two computer industry giants, Intel and Microsoft, pushing alternative approaches. Intel has developed a $400 laptop aimed at schools as well as an education program that focuses on teachers instead of students. And Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman and a leading philanthropist for the third world, has questioned whether the concept is “just taking what we do in the rich world” and assuming that that is something good for the developing world, too.

Mr. Negroponte, the founding director of the M.I.T. Media Laboratory, said he was amused by the attention his little machine was getting. It is not the first time he has been challenged for proclaiming technology’s promise.

“It’s as if people spent all of their attention focusing on Columbus’s boat and not on where he was going,” he said in an interview here. “You have to remember that what this is about is education.”

Seymour Papert, a computer scientist and educator who is an adviser to the project, has argued that if young people are given computers and allowed to explore, they will “learn how to learn.” That, Mr. Papert argues, is a more valuable skill than traditional teaching strategies that focus on memorization and testing.

The idea is also that children can take on much of the responsibility for maintaining the systems, rather than relying on or creating bureaucracies to do so.

“We believe you have to leverage the kids themselves,” Ms. Jepsen said. “They’re learning machines.” As an example, she pointed to the backlight used by the laptop. Although it is designed to last five years, if it fails it can be replaced as simply as batteries are replaced in a flashlight. It is something a child can do, she said.

That philosophy, at the heart of the project’s world view, has stirred criticism for its focus on getting equipment to students rather than issues like teacher training and curriculum.

“I think it’s wonderful that the machines can be put in the hands of children and parents, and it will have an impact on their lives if they have access to electricity,” Larry Cuban, a Stanford University education professor, said in an interview. “However, if part of their rationale is that it will revolutionize education in various countries, I don’t think it will happen, and they are naïve and innocent about the reality of formal schooling.”

The debate is certain to enter a new phase when the machines go into full-scale production by Taiwan-based Quanta Computer, the world’s second-largest laptop maker. (The manufacturer, unlike the project itself, will make a profit.) Overnight, even though it will not be available to consumers, the laptop could become the best-selling portable computer in the world.

The project now has tentative commitments for three million computers and will begin large-scale manufacturing when it reaches five million with separate commitments from at least one country each in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Based on current negotiations, Mr. Negroponte says he expects that goal to be reached by mid-2007.

It got a significant boost on Nov. 15 when the Inter-American Development Bank signed an agreement to supply both loans and grants to buy the machines.

“Several years ago, I thought it was an illusion or a utopian idea,” said Juan José Daboub, managing director of the World Bank and an independent economic-development expert. “But this is now real and encouraging.”

Mr. Negroponte said the manufacturing cost was now below $150 and that it would fall below $100 by the end of 2008.

One factor setting the project apart from earlier efforts to create inexpensive computers for education is the inclusion of a wireless network capability in each machine.

The project leaders say they will employ a variety of methods for connecting to the Internet, depending on local conditions. In some countries, like Libya, satellite downlinks will be used. In others, like Nigeria, the existing cellular data network will provide connections, and in some places specially designed long-range Wi-Fi antennas will extend the wireless Internet to rural areas.

[Heng]

It's easy to see that this is one of hundreds of thousands of factors that keeps the gap ever widening. In my household, we have kids from all kinds of backgrounds with parents at various stages of economic development from relatively poor to relatively well off. The latter have 5 and 6 year old's already surfing the net (doing kids stuff like finding your house, Big C, Wat Pra Kaew, etc. on Google Earth, buying books off of Amazon... but "not without permission!"...) the former have kids the same age who point at the keyboard and say proudly "this is the space bar... this is the enter key..." Unfortunately, 10-15 years down the road, it'll be even less of a contest than what it is now.

[TheGameJustIs]

why are there a bunch of kids from different families in your house on your computer? do you let the maids kid use the web? your wife's family? huh?

[Heng]

why are there a bunch of kids from different families in your house on your computer? do you let the maids kid use the web? your wife's family? huh?

They aren't all on my computers in my house. I was referring to 'my household' as in the various homes and blood related families on our family property and nearby adjacent property... we often all dine together though and know what's going on under "our roof(s)." Some of the parents involved leave computer literacy to what the kids are "learning" at school (where I've heard anecdotes about the teacher lining all 40 kids up in class to get in line taking turns at pressing the enter key to hear a frog make a 'ribbit' sound... they make it through the line a few times and class is over), other parents take a more active role (having a central and somewhat supervised computer room at home), some give the kids too much independence (all bedrooms wired for adsl and some of the kids -at least the teens- no doubt having a rather fun but likely naughty time on camfrog).

The maids' kids aren't using anything electronic at all other than the kitchen appliances, usually opting to play with pebbles, leaves, and dirt.... but my point was not the gap between classes, but rather the gap within the middle class between the "semi" computer literate and those truly computer literate from a young age.

[Heng]

Huh?

[sriracha john]

Push it....

Somchai vows to go head with buying 1 million computers for students

Education Minister Somchai Wongsawat said Friday that he would go ahead to buy 1 million notebook computers for students to use.

But the computers would be lent to students instead of being given to them as in the initial plan.

The education minister said a committee has yet to decide whether students will be allowed to take the computers home.

- The Nation (today)

[Plus]

No handout is a good handout unless it creates more debts for the poor.

[chevykanteve]

No handout is a good handout unless it creates more debts for the poor.

I think you mean "no handout is a good handout if it benefits the education of poor people so that they can learn to think for themselves, get good jobs and perhaps even ---horror of horrors--- establish independent businesses (retail, etc.)."

[Plus]

It was a sarcastic comment, and still, I meant what I said - this government is not going to provide education tools for free, it prefers to keep poor in debt.

One good reason - next time it can promise to forgive/postpone debt repayments in exchange for votes. It's not vote buying, it's a "policy".

It's a shame they use this trick in education (though I bet they don't feel any shame). If you think I'm exaggerating - this is what they've done with university student loans.

And, Chevy, if you read the first comple of pages of this thread you'll see that I think buying these computers is a waste of money for the country, a waste of monumental proportions, comparable to the whole education ministry budget. The government simply wants to buy the hardware, and I have a good guess why, they don't think about how it's going to be implemented, who is going to implement it, and how are they going to prevent the project from falling on its face because of manpower shortages, infrastructure shortages, and no management and administration in place.

Not to mention the fact that these computers are incompatible with Windows systems that prevail in this country. Students will need to be trained again to be able to use their friends/neighbours/school/work computers, using Min Ed's usual computer related programs. Back to square one.

Why not teach them to use Windows from the start?

Edited March 22, 2008 by Plus

[stub]

Not to mention the fact that these computers are incompatible with Windows systems that prevail in this country. Students will need to be trained again to be able to use their friends/neighbours/school/work computers, using Min Ed's usual computer related programs. Back to square one.

Why not teach them to use Windows from the start?

Because many people don't want a world where $US100 of the cost of every computer is going to a single corporation in the US for no real benefit. The only reason most of the computers are running Windows here is that it is 'free' and the default, it is what people are familiar with, and it is what other people do (talking the majority of work computers here - not the people who actually need the features of modern Windows or OSX). The first is changing already, as Microsoft is having more success blocking pirated users from updates and the virus, spyware writers making this a major problem (even application authors make it a problem - when the apps land that require XP service pack 3 or Vista service pack 1 plenty of people are going to have to cough up money). The second and third are simply a matter of exposing a new generation to alternatives so they learn to use 'a computer' rather than 'windows' or 'office' (learn the concepts and metaphor rather than hot keys and application specific formulas and you can drive any modern system from Windows to Linux to Tivo).

That $100 is becoming a real problem now devices like the XO and the low cost palm tops like the Asus EEE hiting the market - the price point has been set so low commercial operating systems have been pushed out of the market already. The commercial vendors will either need to ignore this and concentrate on the high end laptops and desktops, and become 'boutique' as costs come down and more and the high end becomes low end, or try and retain their markete share by maintaining those platforms at a loss which is not viable in the long term.

Its changing right now. Hardware vendors are offering cheaper systems without the Windows license. OSX and Linux are increasing market share. Tendors for large deployments are being won by linux system integrators. The schools and universities are switching or have switched. Mainland Europe and South America has been won. Asia will be won once Windows isn't 'free'. Africa will be won as their systems will be Open Source from day one. Open Source is hip and people holding the purse strings are realizing it does what they actually need, rather than what they are being told they need.

[Ricardo]

Push it....

Somchai vows to go head with buying 1 million computers for students

Education Minister Somchai Wongsawat said Friday that he would go ahead to buy 1 million notebook computers for students to use.

But the computers would be lent to students instead of being given to them as in the initial plan.

The education minister said a committee has yet to decide whether students will be allowed to take the computers home.

- The Nation (today)

Wonder what they will do when, several years later, the students leave school & return their lap-tops, which are no longer in working-order ? Will they then charge the students a 'nominal' charge to cover the cost of repairs ? Or insist that they pay for a brand-new replacement ?

[Plus]

Stub, I understand your argument that Windows might not be the dominating system in the future and SOME students might not even need to be taught how to use it, but do you seriously think this remote chance warrants spending over a billion dollars NOW, just to be prepared?

Min Ed is not in some kind of drive to end Windows domination, it shouldn't be their concern at all. They need to prepare people to enter the work market armed with essential skills, not to plot the revolution, students are not soldiers or guinea pigs.

Besides, this notebook is so far behind the curve specification wise that it won't be able to run even basic things like Open Office applications that generally duplicate Word, Excel etc.

Nor will it teach general Windows maintenance and safety procedures - very essential skills, imo.

There ARE other alternatives, as you mentioned, market driven, techonology driven, user driven solutions, not politically driven.

[stub]

Stub, I understand your argument that Windows might not be the dominating system in the future and SOME students might not even need to be taught how to use it, but do you seriously think this remote chance warrants spending over a billion dollars NOW, just to be prepared?

Min Ed is not in some kind of drive to end Windows domination, it shouldn't be their concern at all. They need to prepare people to enter the work market armed with essential skills, not to plot the revolution, students are not soldiers or guinea pigs.

Besides, this notebook is so far behind the curve specification wise that it won't be able to run even basic things like Open Office applications that generally duplicate Word, Excel etc.

Nor will it teach general Windows maintenance and safety procedures - very essential skills, imo.

There ARE other alternatives, as you mentioned, market driven, technology driven, user driven solutions, not politically driven.

When you are talking education, you need to be targeting the world you foresee in several years. If you target the current environment you will be three years behind the curve for your university students or up to 10 years for your primary school students. Then there is the lead time of the project, and the lifetime of the project (you don't want to change directions every year, that is economically inviable). So if you want the *next* generation of primary school kids to be as familiar with their computers as they are with their TV you really want to be thinking about where things will be in 15 years time. Windows maintenance will be utterly useless to this generation unless they are using Windows based machines (and then only for a few years until these procedures change, well before they hit the job market). Same goes for Linux maintenance for that matter. 15 years is a long time, so learning about particular applications or operating systems is pointless. Learning about the overarching metaphors and ideas that we expect to remain somewhat familiar will last a lifetime, but more importantly, learning how to learn is the key. The people considered 'good with computers' are the ones who can sit down in front of an unfamiliar system and make it do stuff. The good computer science courses don't teach C or Cobol or Java or Oracle or C++ or C#; they teach programming and algorithms and data structures and security and design and methodology with just enough 'real life' IT skills to get them started in a career. Its also why sitting down at a computer or just watching is a great way of learning - if you rote learn (click here, press Alt-F1, hit enter...) your 'skills' will be out of date next year, or maybe next week. Learning that modern systems are designed to be discoverable, and learning how to make use of that discoverability is key. Do you read the error message if you get a problem and try to understand it, or do you blank out and call over 'the computer guy' because 'I don't understand computers'?

Also, when you are dealing with these time frames you are changing the future. If Thailand decides to distribute a million ASUS EEE boxes running Windows (there is a good change Microsoft will offer the OS and updates for free), they are actually setting the course for what IT will look like in this country in 15 years time. Same if Thailand decides to go with a Linux or OSX or OS/2 based solution. Universities switched from cobol to C or VB to C++ or Java well before industry switched, and those changes caused industry to change - the universities not only forsaw what they thought their students would need, but also generated that need through the act of changing. Your stuffed if your business needs graduates with cobol skills and you can no longer get graduates with cobol skills, so you better start adapting now.

This is why it is the governments responsibility to set the direction. If they don't, someone else will and it will be for *their* benefit and not Thailand's. Now the WTO and improved anti-piracy systems are applying pressure to be legitimate, governments see how much that 10% of the cost of each PC adds up to for a genuine windows system over the decades. They also see this huge bill can be reduced by taking another path, while still remaining competative and meeting their political responsibilities. Politics is already involved, because it is the politicians who have to decide to enforce using licensed software or not. You don't decide to do this with the negative impact this has on local business without going further and trying to alleviate this impact. The WTO has been one of the major drivers of Open Source adoption - it made the governments get involved. Stamp out piracy or become a pariah. The only economically viable method of stamping out the piracy in many countries is to use free software.

This snowballing happens elsewhere too. Did you know that major PC manufacturers like Dell and Asus are shipping systems with Linux preinstalled rather than Windows? They are doing this because there are large Linux based rollouts happening (governments, ministries, school districts, entire educational infrastructures). If you are a PC component manufacturer like ATI or Broadcom or any of the other zillions, it means you need to be Linux compatible or you are losing this growing market share. Or your entire market share, as to keep margins down the PC manufacturers need to deal with as few different components as possible, and it is an obvious choice between a component that supports both linux and windows or the component that just supports windows. It also means new opportunities and new ways to outbid your competition - offering freely distributable Open Source drivers rather than unmaintainable binary blobs for instance. And all these computers still need support, which needs people with the skills to do that support...

Oops... I'm rambling.

[Plus]

Yes, you are rambling.

Shifting to Linux is not Thai government's policy, and the current Education Ministershould not be making unilateral decisions on this without any kind of research, without any kind of professional council, and it's beyond his scope of responsibilities or expertise.

There's not 15 years time frame, btw. Hopefully students will be using computers for real life purposes as early as in junior high scool, and some of them are doing so already.

Every other computer at any other school or computer lab or at home or at neighobours house or at dad's office runs on Windows, and will do so for the next five-six years at least. Currently Thai education system doesn't have enough resources to teach students to use those windows machines and imposing a completely different operating system on them is a serious policy mistake.

Important point you seem to have missed - those notebooks are not designed to teach computer science or how to use Linux. They have videogame like interface so that even six year olds can operate them. They could just as well have given them Sony PSP with a couple of preinstalled educational games. They chose Linux only to save on software costs, not for any other goals.

>>>

Having said all that - what do you think of another, simple explanation? Buying one million computers from one single source is the easiest way to skim commission without involving too many people and exposing yourself. There will also be only one private contractor to install all those systems (they need to run wifi) nationwide. Minister's family runs one of the most prominent IT business groups in the country, btw.

[sriracha john]

It's not difficult to see that the Education Minister has no background in the field of Education....

A laptop for every school student

Education Minister Somchai Wongsawat wants to make ex-premier Thaksin's dream come true.

Every school pupil may soon be carrying a laptop computer to school instead of heavy bags filled with books. Education Minister Somchai Wongsawat is following up on the idea by the Thaksin Shinawatra government.

"Textbooks will be read directly from laptop screens. Students don't need to carry heavy schoolbags," he said.

Laptops will be given to schools and pupils will be able to take them home to do their school work. "Students can show their fathers content from other countries. This will help support home study and boost family love," he added.

The ministry is working on laptop specifications. Somchai says the private sector will be asked to help pay for the scheme if there is not enough money in state coffers.

Somchai was inspired by the project to get computers into schools. At present there is one computer for every 40 students and the aim is to make that one for every 20.

- Daily Xpress (today)

[slapout]

Which part of the above is Mr Somchai proposing, a laptop for every student, or a computer for every 20 students? Guess this would get rid of all those counterfit text books, need for backpacks and maybe even lockers for students' books etc.

[PeaceBlondie]

How many Thai textbooks are online, ready to be downloaded? How much will this computer weigh down the students' backpacks? Until everybody gets a computer that works, who decides which students or districts get them? Who wil train which ajarns to teach how to teach this way? Has he and his staff answered 18 more questions which do not come with simple multiple choice answers?

Thai people do not believe these political promises. Parents know more than ministers.

[slapout]

Give them hel_l PeaceBlondie, why do these govt appointees even try to get involved in the education system? They should check all of them for their university degree, where it came from, were they even there to go to school, and finally if you wrote a Masters or Doctors thesis, what was the subject and who was the orals presented to? Maybe it was via internet back in the 70's or even earlier, if you believe some of these resumes being put out.