"One Tablet Per Child" project hit as suppliers falter

[Teddy3943]

Oh, what a pitty. This kiddy government could not fulfill their kiddy promises to the Thai kiddies.

[Yunla]

Violently disagree with you education is the job of government. If they includes the previous ones had been doing their job in this respect Thailand would not be in such a mess now.

The pad was a populist policy that gave no value to education. In fact it gave the kids another electronic toy. I have read a few of the parent responses in fact every one I have seen and none of them have said it was doing any good. Even some of the teachers have reported it as a waste. Maybe this thread will bring out some different reports or confirm the exsisting one's.

Bottom line is The government is a miserable failure as has all the previous ones at educating the students.

How are you going to geet a quality education with teacher's who can not teach and inferior aides.

Peacefully agree with you completely. Lol.

I was saying that if its a choice between giving some kids glitchy tabs or building some safer hard infrastructure etc. then that is the government's priority. I totally agree with you, and I have often said on here that the govt should invest heavily in new classrooms, quality staff, new books, and desktop PC's (one per class and two in the library) etc. Obviously adequate investment in and sensible planning of education is the govt's responsibilty. I just don't see how a bunch of kids wasting reading/writing time while they try to get Angry Birds to load on a glitchy tab, is a wise govt education policy.

[Yunla]

#1 these are not toys there are educational.

#2 you have neve seen a company break a contract before????

# 3 this is standard business in many countries.

I have a condo to sell you. It has "exclusive vertical weather augmentation." Holes in the roof.

[Anon999]

"The firm has submitted bank-guarantee letters covering the Bt120 million for the deals." Which firm Jasmin?

""We will confiscate its security deposit," Kitti Limsakul said in his capacity as an adviser to Chaturon." In my experience the buyer makes an upfront payment to the manufacturer. Looks like the Chinese company is/was a back bedroom outfit that had never done an overseas deal or someone here is trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes! You only get one guess.

[Anon999]

This tablet policy is the one that PTP supporters always wheel-out to show that PTP kept their pre-election promises, they say "we were promised a tablets for kids scheme and PTP delivered it."

Inquiring minds wonder if the choice of such a seriously shifty supplier is a way to avoid that pre-election promise, while at the same time claiming to have fulfilled it. Its not our fault the tablets weren't delivered. We made the deal in good faith, with such a not-shady-at-all supplier.

In either case it was a stupid idea. The list of things Thailand needs investment in is truly encyclopedic. Giving toys to kids is Santa's job, the government's job is railways, roads, water, buildings, etc. also job security and income quality, and strict regulation across the board.

#1 these are not toys there are educational.

#2 you have neve seen a company break a contract before????

# 3 this is standard business in many countries.

I take it you have already had access to one of them to confirm their worth?

What is standard business in many countries? Taking an order from abroad without getting a letter of credit from the buyer and a deposit? At the price/unit what company could afford to, let alone be prepared to finance a project of that magnitude out of their own resources? I'll answer the question for you, NONE.

[Thait Spot]

All they need now is a survey of the minimum wage and starting salary for graduates and the whole scam will be unravelled.

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I believe it is 300baht a day

I mean the percentage of people who actually receive that.

Even if it does mean no pay increase for the past 3 years

[bikerider21]

In any contract, you have delivery clauses which it looks like this one did. Such a big contract should have had lawyers. As soon as the contract was broken, (after 30 days) i.e. delivery schedule not met, the contract should have been cancelled.

One of the fundamental things about a contract is making sure that the supplier has the means to meet the terms, delivery, quality etc. Not just to choose the cheapest bid and leave it at that. How many visits to the manufacturers facilities too place?

Another way, is to choose the best terms for "my share". It's because the contract wasn't cancelled after 30 days that the students suffered, no other reason. That's purely the fault of the buyer.

It does make you feel guilty though when you have already started building your house with your share, paid up front. You are not going to cause a fuss and so will let things go on and one which gives enough time to find someone else to blame. This is corruption in it's worst form; the sort that has diar consequences to other people. Castration isn't good enough.

[sonar6ca]

Now, those are "news" , wonder why the clowns chose China, surely they can produce the same "high quality" item here, on the other hand, they might not be able to pocket enough.

[trimesh]

"The Chinese firm explained that a fire had hit the plant of a parts manufacturer, a DRAM manufacturer," the source said.

Ah, the old, the dog ate my homework ploy.

That bit is actually true - it was a Hynix plant in Wuxi, and it was responsible for about 15% of global DRAM production.

But it was back in September, and within about 2 months production had been ramped up in other locations to pretty much make up the shortfall.

The last thing I heard, one half of that plant was back in production, but the date for the restoration of full capacity kept on getting pushed back.

[penwithcris]

If Thai families would like to have tablet computers to enhance their children's education then they should shift their priorities away from their obsession with the acquisition of the highest spec mobile phone

I am constantly amused and bemused when I see the humblest of workers pull out the very latest mobile devices from their pockets.

I make do with the simplest of phones and the very occasional top up, but my in-laws and their friends and visitors always seem to be using top of the range mobiles, and this is in Buriram province, regarded as one of Thailand's poorest regions.

The point I am trying to make is that, instead of relying on government to provide a tablet learning aid, Thai families should shift their slavish allegiance to using the latest mobile phone to acquring a simple tablet computer for their children

Of course it is all to do with'face'.A child's educational needs will nearly always play second fiddle to the necessity be seen holding and using the latest mobile phone

[northernjohn]

I believe that this is the only country to have a policy of providing "tablets" to school children? Most schools have an ICT department where fixed class room computers are made available to students during the ICT class periods. These computers are upgraded every couple of years and are generally more robust and are well maintained. They provide better educational development (kids learn basic programming, productivity tools, daily functional software etc from a PC), they do not get lost or stolen and are far more functional in bringing kids into the wired world. The tablet scheme was poorly thought through, expensive, served no purpose and could not be delivered. No consideration was given to maintenance or even how quickly tablets become obsolete and will need another round of financing for replacements. It is good job they were not delivered. Time to put in place another program or simply buy books which are sorely lacking in the schools I have seen.

Also those schools probably have electricity in them. 2,000 schools with out electricity in Thailand and the PTP are buying tablets

for kids to play games on. For the short time that they last.

They need to take this as a sign that this idea was an utterly stupid one to begin with. First graders don't need tablets.

In my opinion a first grader with a tablet will be held back. They are not mentally mature until the age of 7 and they should be learning how to reason and use logic before given a pad to be used as a tool for learning not a replacement for it.

[stingray]

For what, the students need tablets in the school? I never had any tablets either. We had books, paper and pensil. Not even a calculator was allowed in our school!

[northernjohn]

I just took a look at Bloomberg. The price of the Shenzhen Yitoa Intelligent Control Co., Ltd shares have been rising from 7,090 in June 2013 to 13,400 at the end of Januari 2014 at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. This is a rise of 89%. Someone has made a lot of money with shares of Shenzhen Yitoa Intelligent Control Co., Ltd.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/300131:CH

...is this journalism ....or damage control...or deception....

...it was announced a few days a go........ that the supplier had declared bankruptcy.....

...so what is the game here....???

Don't you just love it one gives references the other makes allegations.

Guess which one is a Shinawatra supporter.

[SjaakNL2013]

If this is a scam then follow the money lines and see of our friends, mister T or miss Y, is somewhere connected to one or more companies in the chain of suppliers.

[bikerider21]

"The Chinese firm explained that a fire had hit the plant of a parts manufacturer, a DRAM manufacturer," the source said.

Ah, the old, the dog ate my homework ploy.

That bit is actually true - it was a Hynix plant in Wuxi, and it was responsible for about 15% of global DRAM production.

But it was back in September, and within about 2 months production had been ramped up in other locations to pretty much make up the shortfall.

The last thing I heard, one half of that plant was back in production, but the date for the restoration of full capacity kept on getting pushed back.

[bikerider21]

So they had a mishap. A contract is a contract. The contract should have been cancelled immediately and renegotiated with other bidders. There were other bidders, right?

Did the buyers check out the manufacturing facilities (fire standards etc) before signing the contact?

[sillymonkey]

If anyone thinks that mistakes like this are only reserved for Thailand they need to take a close look at the current regime in charge of the United States. Google is your friend. Type "failures of the Obama administration" in the search bar and you'll find a laundry list of things that, if investigated by real journalists, would find the same types of corruption, incompetence and cronyism woven throughout all three branches of the government. This type of behavior is not limited to the Obama administration. I suspect that if all administrations were looked at going back to the time of George Washington you will find the same types of behaviors. Since I know my limitations and can firmly state that I'm just above the intelligence level of potted plant that in MHO it's because governments are made up of people and I am not the only potted plant on the shelf.

Peace.

[Notable]

Will this kind of situation ever change here? The tablets the rice scheme etc. Could Thailand ever have an 'Arab spring' type scenario, where they just all decide they've had enough of politicians bullshit?

[casualbiker]

Another failed scheme by the Shinawatras! So how much under the table money was given by this dodgy Chinese company to win this contract? Students got nothing but I'm sure some Shinawatra cronies could suddenly afford to build a summer mansion somewhere.

It sounds like a good idea, but calling the Chinese company dodgy is just ignorant. Also to blame the Shinawatras' is just plain stupid.

I believe the government should have paid the company. I don't provide product or service without money, would you?

This was a good project, but like most; asian greed destroyed it.

As you seem to be so knoweldgable how much money was given under the table?

You seem to only talk trash and never offer solutions.

I'm guessing $1 per unit. As that was the "extra shipping fee" added at the very end of the negotiations on top of the existing fee.

I will let you do the math!

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Edited February 7, 2014 by casualbiker