ICT Ministry Orders 2nd Lot Of Computer Tablets: Thailand

[webfact]

ICT Ministry orders 2nd lot of tablets

Asina Pornwasin,

Wannapa Khaopa

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Information and Communications Technology Ministry yesterday signed a repeat order for the second lot of tablet computers, consisting of 403,941 units at US$82 per unit or a total of Bt1.05 billion.

The Education Ministry will start delivering the first lot 50,000 tablets to six provinces from Monday once the quality check is completed.

ICT Minister Anudith Nakornthap said the 403,941 units were part of the second lot of 804,941 units to be delivered by the Chinese firm Shenzhen Scope Scientific Development. According to the contract, Shenzhen Scope Scientific Development has to deliver the 804,941 tablets in 90 days from June 26, when the ICT Ministry finished checking the first lot of 2,000 tablets and gave the company the go-ahead to start production.

As of now, 61,000 tablets have been delivered and the ICT Ministry started checking them yesterday. It will check all tablets on a lot-by-lot basis, with 500 picked for a random check. It expects to spend five days on checking each lot of 50,000 tablets.

"Once the tablets have been checked they will be passed on to the Education Ministry for delivery," Anudith said, adding that the first lot of 400,000 units - which the ICT Ministry had signed the contract for on May 10 - will be delivered by August 18.

"We are behind schedule in terms of delivery because we spent a lot of time thoroughly checking the first lot of 2,000 units," Anudith said.

ICT Ministry permanent secretary Jeerawan Boonperm said that if seven units in a lot of 50,000 did not meet international standards, the ministry will reject the entire lot.

Shenzhen Scope Scientific Development chairman Liu Jun said the company has already set up its first service centre in Bangkok with full-time technical staff of five to six people, and is in the process of appointing local partners to operate its other 29 service centres across the country.

The company is also providing 5 per cent of the Bt1.05-billion project value as a bank guarantee.

Each tablet has a 7-inch screen with a 1GB RAM and 3600mAh battery, and runs under the Android 4.0 operating system.

Each also has a built-in GPS for monitoring and tracking purposes, and comes with a two-year international warranty.

"The Education Ministry is scheduled to start delivering tablets to 14 of its educational service area offices in Krabi, Kanchanaburi, Kamphaeng Phet, Kalasin, Khon Kaen and Bangkok on Monday," said Anek Ratpiyapaporn. He is director of the Bureau of Technology for Teaching and Learning at the Office of Basic Education Commission.

Anek added that this should cover about 48 per cent of Prathom 1 (Grade 1) students in these provinces.

"Once the tablets arrive at the educational service area offices, they will instruct schools under their supervision to pick them up. And once Prathom 1 teachers get the tablets, educational supervisors, who were previously trained, will then train the teachers on the use of these tablets," Anek said.

-- The Nation 2012-07-10

[lovetotravel]

No mention of the development of the training materials? What will they use these for?

I did see one of these the other day. It was actually quite nice. But not sure how long they will last.

[Yunla]

The Education Ministry will start delivering the first lot 50,000 tablets to six provinces from Monday once the quality check is completed.

They held up the arrival of this PTP-engineered toys-for-children (a la Santa Claus) good-news, so it coincided with the escalating bad-news of the PTP-engineered constitutional disaster that is also occuring. I wonder which one they want their supporters to talk about.

Edited July 10, 2012 by Yunla

[rubl]

On May 11th after inking the contract we had Information and Communication Technology (ICT) minister Anudit Nakornthap saying "The first batch of 400,000 tablets, costing $32.8 million, will be delivered within 60 days." That moved a wee bit to August 18th.

We also seem to be going down on numbers with now mentioning "804,941 units". Mind you Thailand currently has 850,000 primary one students. However, of around 20,000 schools, only 9,600 currently have internet connectivity and are ready to receive the tablets.

As for the "seven units in a lot of 50,000 did not meet international standards, the ministry will reject the entire lot.". One would expect the ICT Ministry to be mathematical about this. They probably use the Student's t-distribution in their guestimates.

BTW I lost track of budgets allocated and spend. Mind you I went for a beer last night

[Valentine]

On May 11th after inking the contract we had Information and Communication Technology (ICT) minister Anudit Nakornthap saying "The first batch of 400,000 tablets, costing $32.8 million, will be delivered within 60 days." That moved a wee bit to August 18th.

We also seem to be going down on numbers with now mentioning "804,941 units". Mind you Thailand currently has 850,000 primary one students. However, of around 20,000 schools, only 9,600 currently have internet connectivity and are ready to receive the tablets.

As for the "seven units in a lot of 50,000 did not meet international standards, the ministry will reject the entire lot.". One would expect the ICT Ministry to be mathematical about this. They probably use the Student's t-distribution in their guestimates.

BTW I lost track of budgets allocated and spend. Mind you I went for a beer last night

It is reasonable to reject a lot of 50,000 unit if 7 are found to be deficient out of 500 which are picked at random for testing.

[h90]

No mention of the development of the training materials? What will they use these for?

I did see one of these the other day. It was actually quite nice. But not sure how long they will last.

That is a silly question! They are used to put tax-payer money into the PTPs pockets.

Corruption on training material will come later.

[lovetotravel]

Corruption on training material will come later.

55555555555555555555555

[Buchholz]

We also seem to be going down on numbers with now mentioning "804,941 units". Mind you Thailand currently has 850,000 primary one students.

The other paper this morning is reporting, for the first time that I can recall seeing, that the ICT Ministry is saying that all Prathom 1 students, in both public and private schools, will receive a ScoPad.

There's been a gajillion press releases on this ever-changing scam and perhaps they've said that before, but AFAIK they haven't.

.

[Moruya]

On May 11th after inking the contract we had Information and Communication Technology (ICT) minister Anudit Nakornthap saying "The first batch of 400,000 tablets, costing $32.8 million, will be delivered within 60 days." That moved a wee bit to August 18th.

We also seem to be going down on numbers with now mentioning "804,941 units". Mind you Thailand currently has 850,000 primary one students. However, of around 20,000 schools, only 9,600 currently have internet connectivity and are ready to receive the tablets.

As for the "seven units in a lot of 50,000 did not meet international standards, the ministry will reject the entire lot.". One would expect the ICT Ministry to be mathematical about this. They probably use the Student's t-distribution in their guestimates.

BTW I lost track of budgets allocated and spend. Mind you I went for a beer last night

It is reasonable to reject a lot of 50,000 unit if 7 are found to be deficient out of 500 which are picked at random for testing.

It'll take a fair while for them to open the boxes, unpack them, put in a sticker, power them up, shut them down, pack them back up and fill in untold amounts of paperwork in triplicate.

"GPS for monitoring and tracking purposes" - what on earth does this mean?

[h90]

On May 11th after inking the contract we had Information and Communication Technology (ICT) minister Anudit Nakornthap saying "The first batch of 400,000 tablets, costing $32.8 million, will be delivered within 60 days." That moved a wee bit to August 18th.

We also seem to be going down on numbers with now mentioning "804,941 units". Mind you Thailand currently has 850,000 primary one students. However, of around 20,000 schools, only 9,600 currently have internet connectivity and are ready to receive the tablets.

As for the "seven units in a lot of 50,000 did not meet international standards, the ministry will reject the entire lot.". One would expect the ICT Ministry to be mathematical about this. They probably use the Student's t-distribution in their guestimates.

BTW I lost track of budgets allocated and spend. Mind you I went for a beer last night

It is reasonable to reject a lot of 50,000 unit if 7 are found to be deficient out of 500 which are picked at random for testing.

It'll take a fair while for them to open the boxes, unpack them, put in a sticker, power them up, shut them down, pack them back up and fill in untold amounts of paperwork in triplicate.

"GPS for monitoring and tracking purposes" - what on earth does this mean?

nothing...that GPS is just integrated on one chip. They anyway told that the device can not be taken home. Only used in the school (which makes it complete worthless, because how can you learn at home??). So do they want to track if the device is on the left or on the right table?

[Moruya]

On May 11th after inking the contract we had Information and Communication Technology (ICT) minister Anudit Nakornthap saying "The first batch of 400,000 tablets, costing $32.8 million, will be delivered within 60 days." That moved a wee bit to August 18th.

We also seem to be going down on numbers with now mentioning "804,941 units". Mind you Thailand currently has 850,000 primary one students. However, of around 20,000 schools, only 9,600 currently have internet connectivity and are ready to receive the tablets.

As for the "seven units in a lot of 50,000 did not meet international standards, the ministry will reject the entire lot.". One would expect the ICT Ministry to be mathematical about this. They probably use the Student's t-distribution in their guestimates.

BTW I lost track of budgets allocated and spend. Mind you I went for a beer last night

It is reasonable to reject a lot of 50,000 unit if 7 are found to be deficient out of 500 which are picked at random for testing.

It'll take a fair while for them to open the boxes, unpack them, put in a sticker, power them up, shut them down, pack them back up and fill in untold amounts of paperwork in triplicate.

"GPS for monitoring and tracking purposes" - what on earth does this mean?

nothing...that GPS is just integrated on one chip. They anyway told that the device can not be taken home. Only used in the school (which makes it complete worthless, because how can you learn at home??). So do they want to track if the device is on the left or on the right table?

I can see how GPS and Google maps would be of benefit to the students - but if all they can ever see is the school coordinates then it's gonna be pretty boring.

They could take them home and save the GPS position then bring it to school to map each pupil's house location. Field trips to the local shops or parks etc.

[seadoo]

Hmmm delivery note: 1 tablet for the school - 2 tablets for my market stall.

[h90]

I can see how GPS and Google maps would be of benefit to the students - but if all they can ever see is the school coordinates then it's gonna be pretty boring.

They could take them home and save the GPS position then bring it to school to map each pupil's house location. Field trips to the local shops or parks etc.

you think it will be strong enough for google maps?

They could try to find Dubai with google maps.....

[Moruya]

I can see how GPS and Google maps would be of benefit to the students - but if all they can ever see is the school coordinates then it's gonna be pretty boring.

They could take them home and save the GPS position then bring it to school to map each pupil's house location. Field trips to the local shops or parks etc.

you think it will be strong enough for google maps?

They could try to find Dubai with google maps.....

Ha ha - and draw pictures of camels for their friends too.

The tablets are running ICS on what I think is a single core 1GHz processor - it will have some lag for sure. Google maps will be a bit slow to load and render I would guess - but should be fine as an educational aid

[OzMick]

They could take them home and save the GPS position then bring it to school to map each pupil's house location. Field trips to the local shops or parks etc.

Does google have a map of Nakhon Nowhere?

[Pseudolus]

The VIP rooms in the brothels have been busy again then and watch out for a spike in luxury car and house markets.

[mpetersen]

On May 11th after inking the contract we had Information and Communication Technology (ICT) minister Anudit Nakornthap saying "The first batch of 400,000 tablets, costing $32.8 million, will be delivered within 60 days." That moved a wee bit to August 18th.

We also seem to be going down on numbers with now mentioning "804,941 units". Mind you Thailand currently has 850,000 primary one students. However, of around 20,000 schools, only 9,600 currently have internet connectivity and are ready to receive the tablets.

As for the "seven units in a lot of 50,000 did not meet international standards, the ministry will reject the entire lot.". One would expect the ICT Ministry to be mathematical about this. They probably use the Student's t-distribution in their guestimates.

BTW I lost track of budgets allocated and spend. Mind you I went for a beer last night

It is reasonable to reject a lot of 50,000 unit if 7 are found to be deficient out of 500 which are picked at random for testing.

Yes. That's MIL standard sampling/inspection. They could actually choose 74 out of those 500 and allow a zero reject rate.

[Ferangled]

They could take them home and save the GPS position then bring it to school to map each pupil's house location. Field trips to the local shops or parks etc.

Does google have a map of Nakhon Nowhere?

Google Earth?

It's a relatively minor project, easy to miss, involving satellite imagery of the entire planet. Is Nakhon Nowhere on the moon?

[h90]

On May 11th after inking the contract we had Information and Communication Technology (ICT) minister Anudit Nakornthap saying "The first batch of 400,000 tablets, costing $32.8 million, will be delivered within 60 days." That moved a wee bit to August 18th.

We also seem to be going down on numbers with now mentioning "804,941 units". Mind you Thailand currently has 850,000 primary one students. However, of around 20,000 schools, only 9,600 currently have internet connectivity and are ready to receive the tablets.

As for the "seven units in a lot of 50,000 did not meet international standards, the ministry will reject the entire lot.". One would expect the ICT Ministry to be mathematical about this. They probably use the Student's t-distribution in their guestimates.

BTW I lost track of budgets allocated and spend. Mind you I went for a beer last night

It is reasonable to reject a lot of 50,000 unit if 7 are found to be deficient out of 500 which are picked at random for testing.

Yes. That's MIL standard sampling/inspection. They could actually choose 74 out of those 500 and allow a zero reject rate.

Or they could demand 100.000 Baht bribe per every faulty they found.

[whybother]

From the "105 Tablets" thread from a month ago ... http://www.thaivisa....y-for-delivery/

The first lot of devices will be delivered 60 days after the contract was signed on May 10, followed by 600,000 units 30 days later. There are some 183 education offices across the country.

The 10,000 Chinese-made computers is the first lot of the projected 400,000 tablets in total.

...

The remaining tablet PCs are scheduled to be delivered from June 26 until August 18.

I'm a bit confused. Are all 900,000 tablets currently scheduled to be delivered, or only 400,000?

Based on the OP, 400,000 tablets should be delivered by July 10, and the remaining 500,000 by August 10.

Also, with the first 10,000 being delivered to Suvarnabhumi on June 22, how long will it be before they are actually delivered to the students?

Now, a month later, they have 60,000 tablets, and they expect to get 340,000 more in only one more month?

As of now, 61,000 tablets have been delivered and the ICT Ministry started checking them yesterday. It will check all tablets on a lot-by-lot basis, with 500 picked for a random check. It expects to spend five days on checking each lot of 50,000 tablets.

"Once the tablets have been checked they will be passed on to the Education Ministry for delivery," Anudith said, adding that the first lot of 400,000 units - which the ICT Ministry had signed the contract for on May 10 - will be delivered by August 18.

And THEN, how long for the other 500,000?

I'm still confused.

Edited July 10, 2012 by whybother

[Moruya]

They could take them home and save the GPS position then bring it to school to map each pupil's house location. Field trips to the local shops or parks etc.

Does google have a map of Nakhon Nowhere?

It can only be found on the handcart to hell.

[nkg]

Pictures of the latest tablet model have just been released:

[OzMick]

They could take them home and save the GPS position then bring it to school to map each pupil's house location. Field trips to the local shops or parks etc.

Does google have a map of Nakhon Nowhere?

Google Earth?

It's a relatively minor project, easy to miss, involving satellite imagery of the entire planet. Is Nakhon Nowhere on the moon?

You don't say! Actually you do! When you find Nakhon Nowhere, please post the GPS co-ordinates, and if you come across it, Atlantis would be interesting.

[Ferangled]

They could take them home and save the GPS position then bring it to school to map each pupil's house location. Field trips to the local shops or parks etc.

Does google have a map of Nakhon Nowhere?

Google Earth?

It's a relatively minor project, easy to miss, involving satellite imagery of the entire planet. Is Nakhon Nowhere on the moon?

You don't say! Actually you do! When you find Nakhon Nowhere, please post the GPS co-ordinates, and if you come across it, Atlantis would be interesting.

Oh I get you, you weren't making the point that those living in the middle of nowhere had nothing to gain from geographical knowledge, you were just being <deleted>. Understood.

[whybother]

More delays: The other paper has an article saying the distribution of 45,000 tablets has been delayed due to the delay in procurement.

Are ANY tablets actually being used by grade 1 students yet?

[rubl]

^#25 whybother

Stupid question. As you could have seen on television a month or so ago, at least 105 were handed out by the PM to first graders. The kids looked happy, impressed with their new toy. Of course these tablets are used.

The next question of course would be 'used by whom and for what?'

[phiphidon]

^#25 whybother

Stupid question. As you could have seen on television a month or so ago, at least 105 were handed out by the PM to first graders. The kids looked happy, impressed with their new toy. Of course these tablets are used.

The next question of course would be 'used by whom and for what?'

It doesn't matter rubl. As others have said on here the tablets were merely an election ploy - at the very next election hordes of 'ex' first graders will be stretching up to the ballet boxes clutching their election slips in their grubby paws whilst counting the "pocket money" the nice politician gave them - the first steps on to Thaksins world domination, Mwar hah hah hah hah.......................

[rubl]

^#27 phiphidon

Nice deflection, phiphidon, but most eligable voters are ex-first-graders, even those who voted for Pheu Thai and their 'election only promises'.

BTW with first graders about 6 - 7 yo, new elections 11 years from now?

[hellodolly]

Pictures of the latest tablet model have just been released:

Oh goody a pad in English. Complete with a GPS. Now if they could only teach them how to read a map.

I know it is a Texas Instrument. But at least it won't break down the first week they have it. If they hhad enough smarts to have ordered one from some one who knows how to make them.

I thought they were going to get one for every student. So far they haven't even ordered enough for first year students.

[Buchholz]

^#27 phiphidon

Nice deflection, phiphidon, but most eligable voters are ex-first-graders, even those who voted for Pheu Thai and their 'election only promises'.

BTW with first graders about 6 - 7 yo, new elections 11 years from now?

Oak will be president then.

....in a rigged election.

.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Buchholz