Meanwhile, The Deputy Minister of Education further stated that he would oversee the next purchase of tablet computers by himself to assure its transparency.

Is this new way to stomp out corruption?

BTW 1-1/2 month to go in the current schoolyear. Are all 890,000 tabletPCs already delivered and in the hands of kids ?

Meanwhile, The Deputy Minister of Education further stated that he would oversee the next purchase of tablet computers by himself to assure its transparency.

Is this new way to stomp out corruption?

I hope the Grand Overseer has had the holes in his desk fixed...

Deputy Education Minister Sakda Kongpetch said he believed his office and mobile phone might have been bugged in the investigation over alleged corruption involving the purchase of education material by the Office of Vocational Education (OVE).

Sakda requested the Internal Security Operation Command (Isoc) to send experts to examine his office where sensitive discussions with a college director about the investigation took place, and to check his mobile phone.

The Isoc team examined Sakda's room, including his desk, and found some irregular drilled holes and detected voice tapping signals in the area, but no hard evidence.

The Nation - August 21, 2012

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Minister-Sakda-claims-office-phone-were-bugged-30188689.html

BTW 1-1/2 month to go in the current schoolyear. Are all 890,000 tabletPCs already delivered and in the hands of kids ?

Not sure how many have actually been delivered so far, but they're definitely not in the hands of all the P-1 students that were promised one.

The director of my school gave away all the tablets to "important" people in the community. Some the the parents of the EP students, some to her friends. The rest remain locked in a cabinet, gathering dust. The whole program is a sham.

Surprised to read that all Prathom1 students are using tablets because the local village school where I live certainly haven't received any yet.

THEY ARE SUPPOSED to have been delivered in Nakhon Pathom (my province) but a source at the local MOE has not seen them.. I think i may go look at a couple of my old schools to see if thy are there.

Edited February 11, 201313 yr by Buchholz

Damage insurance? On a few hundred thousand 3000 baht tablets?

Don't think there will be many underwriters willing to take this risk.

Damage insurance? On a few hundred thousand 3000 baht tablets?

Don't think there will be many underwriters willing to take this risk.

I see kids every day dragging their back pack in the road tied behind their bicycle on the way home from school. Too heave to carry I suppose. Damage insurance anyone?

The government will purchase 1.69 million computer tablets for first graders and first-year high school students in four lots through e-auctions.

The department has been allocated Bt4.4 billion to be used not only for purchases but also operational expenses.

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It was announced yesterday that the auction will take place on April 24 with government revising their numbers up to now buying 1.8 million tablets and spending Five Billion Baht to do so.

Amongst the expected bidders are Shenzen Scope which won the last contract as well as computer manufacturers TCL, SVOA, Samart, Huawei, Supreme Computers, and Acer.

The new tablets will be going to students in Prathom 1 and Mathayom 1, as well as to teachers. The warranty period has been cut in half to one year for the new tablets.

The e-auction will be for 8 contracts in 4 regions of Thailand.

The winning company will have 90 days from contract signing to deliver the computers.

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What is this fascination that the Thai have with tablets? While tablets are fun devices, work is still done on PC's via keyboard/mouse.

I was at a guest house in ChangKhan. I was tying to show some kids, from obviously well to do thai families, how to navigate on my laptop. They didn't know how to use my keyboard or the keyboard tracking device. They kept trying to swipe it like a scratchpad or tablet screen

I becoming frustrated by the Thai's fascination with the superficial,

and not the interest in something of substance.

OK on a personal note, getting this frustrated usually means i need a good workout, a scotch and a cig

(any excuse will do )

The e-auction will be for 8 contracts in 4 regions of Thailand.

The winning company will have 90 days from contract signing to deliver the computers.

So assuming each contract is for an equal number that will mean that each winning Co must have access to more than 200,000 of the things within 90 days.

Having them on hand just in case they won would seem a risky business but then possibly they each have the ability to manufacture that many in 3 months.

Tablets may be delayed

The government will not be able to distribute tablet computers to Prathom 1 and Mathayom 1 students before the 2013 academic year kicks off because the shipment will not arrive on time.

Deputy Education Minister Sermsak Pongpanich said Wednesday that the tablets procured under a budget of more than Bt5 billion could not be delivered by May 16 - the day schools re-open for the new academic year.

The government plans to purchase 1.8 million tablets for its One Tablet Per Child project this year, but relevant authorities are still working on the terms of reference (TOR) for the procurement.

"We expect the TOR to be ready by March 13 and the e-auctions to take place on April 25. After that, we should be able to sign the purchase contracts on May 10," Sermsak explained.

He added that successful bidders would have up to 90 days to make the delivery after signing the contracts.

"So, the tablets will arrive between late May and July," the deputy education minister said.

-- The Nation 2013-03-06

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Consistently inconsistent...

tablets delayed in 2012.... tablets delayed in 2013...

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Edited March 6, 201313 yr by Buchholz

Can someone tell me when the new school year starts? Wouldn't that be around the 7th of May?

Can someone tell me when the new school year starts? Wouldn't that be around the 7th of May?

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May 16th is the start of the school year this year. With an auction on April 25th, followed at a later date by the actual contractual signing with the winning bidders, followed by up to 90 days stipulation to fill their contractual orders makes May 16th look really, really doubtful as to having the new batch of tablets in the classrooms.

The Education Minister said last year that at that the start of the school year in May 2012 that all students in all grades (some 11 million students) would have a tablet, for which the scheme would have truly lived up to its, still-used-but-no-longer-accurate, hyped depiction :

One Tablet Per Child scheme.

Instead, at this rate of only accessing tablets for just 1 or 2 grades per year, it could very well turn out to be a decade before the One Tablet Per Child actually lives up to its currently deceptive billing.

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Edited March 6, 201313 yr by Buchholz

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Deputy Education Minister Sermsak is putting the time-frame of the delay as "several months late" for getting the tablets into the classrooms.

He blamed the delay on the committee tasked with drafting the terms of the e-auction who were tardy in establishing their draft of the requirements.

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Edited March 6, 201313 yr by Buchholz