China Offers Massive Loan For Thailand's One Tablet Per Child Scheme

[Ricardo]

Thailand is currently relatively well-off economically-speaking, so why on earth would they need financing as this offer suggests, to achieve what they've already decided-upon and budgeted ?

Who buys on-credit, when they can get a cash-discount ?

Something doesn't add up here.

[dude007]

very smart from the Chinese: they catch two flies in one stroke:

1. good for their own business in supplying cheap low quality tablet computers;

2. Keep the Thai people dumb so that vote buying can go on (probably a whispered idea from Yingluck Sinawatra when she visited China...). Because when vote buying is over, there will be a totally new political picture and balance in the country, and not in favour of the ruling PT party and the Shinawatra-cronies!

[KuhnPaen]

And 50% of those tablets will be pawned, "Lost", gambled, stolen, traded, etc....(hopefully the teacher will collect them at the end of class)

I always find it charming when I go to Sisaket and see a shack on stilts, with no running water, yet it has a satellite TV dish on the roof. In a country where most people don't own a car, cel phones and Ipads are THE status symbol. A girl I know spent nearly 27,000 baht on the newest ipad just so she could use facebook and play Angry birds. I even offered to buy her one for half the price in the States and send it to her, but she had to have it now. Just had to.

Man, I miss early 90's pre-internet Thailand.

[Tatsujin]

More 'business' between Thailand and China. Anyone else see a shifting away from the USA and towards China, or is it just me?

[whybother]

Thailand is currently relatively well-off economically-speaking, so why on earth would they need financing as this offer suggests, to achieve what they've already decided-upon and budgeted ?

Who buys on-credit, when they can get a cash-discount ?

Something doesn't add up here.

Because they've spent all their money on rice.

[Tatsujin]

It's quite simple, the more loans or schemes they can run, the more the greedy lying bastards can skim off the top.

[osiboy]

seems to me the biggest crime here is the thai govt; not listening to the advice of their scholars/achademics who only last week advised the education system to move away from computers and learn how to read first !!

[Lancelot]

More 'business' between Thailand and China. Anyone else see a shifting away from the USA and towards China, or is it just me?

Maybe. I see it more as playing the super powers and getting the best deal possible. Currently Thailand is sitting pretty with respect to external threats; however, if she felt threatened by China, the USA would suddenly become her best bud.

All countries act in their own self interests

[kruangfaifar]

My biggest worry , what strings are attached to this kind gesture, China has a reputation of riding rough shod over feel good endeavours hence the Burmese seeing the light.

There are always strings attached to such loans. It called "Export Promotion" as practiced by US Exim bank, JBIC and others

[monkeycountry]

I think all this borrowing is a great idea no matter who steals the money. Once Thailand reaches the debt level of Greece and the country can no longer borrow money, half the country will be laid off. My guess is that a large proportion of the laid off female workers will then go find a job in Nana, Cowboy or Pattaya - and I will be there to welcome them :-)

[rotary]

Thailand should take a look at what the USA has done, and do just the opposite. The USA has borrowed money from China in the trillions of dollars. If you do not have it do not spend it. Something that I hope the yanks will agree with and show on election day with a "change of the guard".

[assayer]

I really thought that I remembered Thaksin saying he would buy every first grader a tablet if he was re-elected!!

Why does Thailand need a loan to buy them if he is??

[metisdead]

An off topic post has been removed as well as the replies.

[alanferdi]

I really hope they don't do this. The cheap tablet market is not yet a mature one; they're destined to improve massively in the next few years and it would be awful if Thailand was left repaying debt for "early adopter" type tablets.

It's also true that there is very little educational material made for these tablets just yet. SLOW DOWN!

Tablets are not a very wise way to go. In the Western world people are taught disciplines for the childs motoristic development - Drawing, writing and describing things....simply pointing at things does not make a child clever.... these tablets are not at all educational unless under supervision.. Children learn well even what we adults think are impossible. Teach them to write, draw and sing the normal way and when they are older, get them to discipline themselves to type... simply pointing will make children less clever.

Learn to read using a tab.... whats the value the cost can cover more books for distribution

Learning to draw cannot be replaced with some digital snik schnak... chinese or apple! Learning to write one needs to be old school here,

Learning to do Mathematics.... simply help children to use their cognitive disciplines.... we will churn lazy kids who cannot work out simple maths without all the aids.

Complexity is not worth the price for the values that are learned when taught normally. Get clever ..... do not simply put on a show... the politicians are good at making their next generation look privilaged... when in reality they will look even more stupid!

[bumpkin]

Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Keep taking the Tablets !

[bumpkin]

as the chinese secretly activate the webcams to watch over the "future"of LOS and steal all of its hidden secrets

little do they know they will just know the outcome of last nights lakorn soap opera and the latest kpop gossip

i wouldnt lend either party a grain of rice...but thats just me

You think the Chinese are interested in which specific game the children are currently playing on their tablets?

[bumpkin]

More 'business' between Thailand and China. Anyone else see a shifting away from the USA and towards China, or is it just me?

The Amricans have been shiftng their "business" away from the USA for a long time.

Ask WalMart.

[clockman]

Do not forget that anybody who is anybody in Thailand. Comes from Chinese stock originaly. And control evrything that happens.

[smedly]

I get the impression This country has serious money problems, the only way they can keep going is to ask China for a loan, as I keep saying - current debt levels are not reported and government officials tell white lies when it comes to releasing economic figures, after this recent reshuffle there's a new line up of ministers ready to fill their pockets - could this turn out to be the greatest theft in human history, the opposition should call for a full audit of goverment funds since PT took office - that is how the Dems could expose this debacle for what it is.

[lizardtongue]

Panita said if Thailand accepted the offer, it could procure tablets for all students and gradually repay the debt later.

By which time there will have been a change of government and you can kiss your money good bye!

The Office of Basic Education Commission's secretary-general Chinnapat Bhumirat said his agency was exploring measures to encourage private/government teachers to develop content for tablets.

You would have thought that the content etc for these tablets would have been approved long before any order was put forward? But I guess as other posts have suggested the slightest hint of being able to skim a few million Baht over rides anything else!

"We may hold contests or promote the teachers' academic ranks,"

Roughly translated, "How much can you pay me to get you promoted"

What should/could have happened is that the Education Minister gets a budget to buy 'tablets' to be initially be used in a 'pilot scheme' if this scheme can be shown to be beneficial to the students then the following fiscal year he gets more money to spend, simple as that?

The problem here is that the corruption is so endemic that the person controlling the purse strings is reluctant to approve the funds because they feel that they are missing out on a scam! Sad thing is they are probably right!

Off the top of my head next year we can look forward to, F1 being held in Bangkok, The film industry filming all over the place, bilingual tourist cops, pre screening at swampy, no more late licenses being granted, the 'war' in the south ending, corruption being thwarted, 300 cycle stations in place around Bangkok, pollution free buses, all the illegal doctor's surgeries shut down, police on 'motorcade duties'

looking smarter and actually knowing what they are doing, Bangkok being flood free, free tablets for all school children and the rice problem being sorted out!

And the chances of any of this actually happening are?

[lizardtongue]

I get the impression This country has serious money problems, the only way they can keep going is to ask China for a loan, as I keep saying - current debt levels are not reported and government officials tell white lies when it comes to releasing economic figures, after this recent reshuffle there's a new line up of ministers ready to fill their pockets - could this turn out to be the greatest theft in human history, the opposition should call for a full audit of goverment funds since PT took office - that is how the Dems could expose this debacle for what it is.

If it hasn't already got money problems, the way things are being run it soon will have! One thing I do not totally agree with is your comment is about asking China for a loan, I am sure that the word 'loan' does not exist in the Thai language, I think it translates into 'gift'!

[Konini]

Win-win for China: provide the product and the financing.

That's how the Chinese do it now, it's been this way for a lot of years and most people are only sitting up and noticing now. Of course, they will expect Thailand to support them in whatever they want to do in the region, that goes without saying, but as someone said earlier in the thread, these things only come from China with strings attached. The expected support isn't a hidden string, it's a given. What the strings are, who alone knows; but we can be certain they won't be beneficial to the receiver of the loans or goods.

[Konini]

What about the kids at orphanee´s ?

They can not go to local schools, and they do only have limited teachers at site !

They would have a lot out of such tablets !

Whoa - orphaned children aren't allowed to go to local schools? Surely not? Please someone tell me that's incorrect. I can't believe that the most needy of all children are denied an education.

[Udox]

What started as an election 'vote-buying' promise is now in danger of turning into a very serious problem.

Borrowing more money to buy more tablets, when the country is already hundreds of billions in debt is nuts!

This whole scheme is (in my opinion) completely un- needed and these people need to stop playing with 'gadgets' and get back to bloody basics.

Good basic education comes first - above everything and anything else.

A tablet and those things associated with it (smart phones etc) are simply an aid, once the basics are in place.

An electronic screen with pre-programmed drivel isn't any substitute for a teacher - teaching !

I fear that that this is going to escalate as Mis Pretty tries to prove herself to the country - at whatever cost and by any means.

Everyone knows that when you want something and are afraid of others recations (your wife, for example) - you drop it into the conversation somewhere, knowing darn well that somewhere down the line, you are going to have it.

I did the same when I bought my new superbike. it started with a comment "oh thats a nice bike" - knowing full well the seed was sown and I was going to have it sometime in the near future.

Miss pretty has started sowing the seed. The Chinese seed. Wait for China to reap the harvest.

No matter what you, me or any of her advisors say - do you think it will make any difference?

Remember the old saying? ........ It seemed a good idea at the time

[rubl]

TabletPCs, education, novel approaches. Here an interesting read:

"A bold experiment by the One Laptop Per Child organization has shown "encouraging" results.

By David Talbot on October 29, 2012

With 100 million first-grade-aged children worldwide having no access to schooling, the One Laptop Per Child organization is trying something new in two remote Ethiopian villages—simply dropping off tablet computers with preloaded programs and seeing what happens."

http://www.technolog...ach-themselves/

[Ricardo]

Thailand is currently relatively well-off economically-speaking, so why on earth would they need financing as this offer suggests, to achieve what they've already decided-upon and budgeted ?

Who buys on-credit, when they can get a cash-discount ?

Something doesn't add up here.

Because they've spent all their money on rice.

But surely they expect to get it all back, and even make a profit, when they finally sell it way-above world-prices, to customers desperate for hom-mali like ... erm ... and ... erm ... etcetera ?

[hellodolly]

Panita said if Thailand accepted the offer, it could procure tablets for all students and gradually repay the debt later.

By which time there will have been a change of government and you can kiss your money good bye!

The Office of Basic Education Commission's secretary-general Chinnapat Bhumirat said his agency was exploring measures to encourage private/government teachers to develop content for tablets.

You would have thought that the content etc for these tablets would have been approved long before any order was put forward? But I guess as other posts have suggested the slightest hint of being able to skim a few million Baht over rides anything else!

"We may hold contests or promote the teachers' academic ranks,"

Roughly translated, "How much can you pay me to get you promoted"

What should/could have happened is that the Education Minister gets a budget to buy 'tablets' to be initially be used in a 'pilot scheme' if this scheme can be shown to be beneficial to the students then the following fiscal year he gets more money to spend, simple as that?

The problem here is that the corruption is so endemic that the person controlling the purse strings is reluctant to approve the funds because they feel that they are missing out on a scam! Sad thing is they are probably right!

Off the top of my head next year we can look forward to, F1 being held in Bangkok, The film industry filming all over the place, bilingual tourist cops, pre screening at swampy, no more late licenses being granted, the 'war' in the south ending, corruption being thwarted, 300 cycle stations in place around Bangkok, pollution free buses, all the illegal doctor's surgeries shut down, police on 'motorcade duties'

looking smarter and actually knowing what they are doing, Bangkok being flood free, free tablets for all school children and the rice problem being sorted out!

And the chances of any of this actually happening are?

You forgot cleaning up the drug problem and rehabilitating the current addicts.

[Keesters]

My biggest worry , what strings are attached to this kind gesture, China has a reputation of riding rough shod over feel good endeavours hence the Burmese seeing the light.

Only thing straight about a Chinaman is his hair :-)

And we all know the ethnic origins of most of the people in power and the rich in Thailand.

[Buchholz]

The Education Ministry is now preparing to hold e-auctions for the procurement of 1.6 million tablets in the 2013 Fiscal Year.

Half of them will be for Prathom 1 students, and the other 800,000 for Mathayom 1 students.

Not sure if the auction for the 800,000 tablets for Mathayom 1 students has already been completed or not, but in a bit of a cart-before-the-horse stratagem, it was announced today that a study examining the effectiveness of having tablets for M-1 students will have its findings published in March.

.