Thai
students will likely have to wait longer than expected for their promised
computer tablets, as the China-based provider can only produce around 1,000 per
day, not 20,000 as it told Thai authorities previously, a source at the
Education Ministry told The Nation yesterday.
Despite the expected delivery delay, training in use
of the tablets by educational personnel, who will in turn act as trainers of
educational supervisors, began yesterday in Bangkok.
Meanwhile, Srinakharinwirot University said it would
release in early May the findings of a study on the benefits and disadvantages
of using tablets in schools.
The source said the supplier, Shenzhen Scope
Scientific Development, could produce 20,000 tablet chassis per day, but could
only produce 1,000 completed units daily.
The Cabinet recently approved the purchase of 1
million tablet computers for elementary students - up from an initial 900,000.
If the company has the capacity to produce only about 1,000 tablets a day, it
will take up to 1,000 days - or two years and nine months - to finish
manufacturing 1 million tablets.
Initially, the government planned to hand out the
tablets to all Prathom 1 (Grade 1) students at the start of the upcoming
semester.
The source said the purchase contract had yet to be
signed, as the company had backtracked on a previously agreed two-year warranty
on its products because it claimed the battery could not last that long. It
wanted to reduce the warranty of the battery to one year, while retaining a
two-year warranty for the other parts.
One hundred personnel from the Office of the Basic
Education Commission (Obec), Office of the Private Education Commission and the
Bangkok Metropolitan Administration began training at the Maxx Hotel Bangkok
yesterday. The session ends Friday. They will train 549 educational supervisors
from all provinces to instruct 54,900 Prathom 1 (Grade 1) teachers during the
summer vacation. The tutorials will enable the teachers to instruct their
pupils in using the tablets, said Anek Ratpiyapaporn, director of the Bureau of
Technology for Teaching and Learning at Obec.
"As the company cannot produce the tablets
ordered by the government now, we are using tablets of other brands that are
normally used in Thailand. We use projectors to show them how to use the
tablets. Over four days of training, they have to learn what tablets can do,
how to use them, what content, applications and instructional media will be
installed in them, and how to use tablets with the Internet, as well as
computer law and ethics," Anek said.
"We cannot wait until the tablets from China
arrive. Our supervisors and teachers have to be prepared. So, whenever the
tablets come, they will be able to use them to teach in class. When the tablets
arrive, we will retrain the 100 trainers in how to use tablets with the same
specifications as those that will be distributed to students," he said.
After the 100 trainers are trained, they will be
divided into five groups to train supervisors in different regions of the
country. Later, each supervisor will train 100 Prathom 1 teachers. Around 200
million baht (US$6.5 million) has been allocated for the training, Anek said.
Earlier, the bureau invested 300 million baht in
creating 2,549 learning objects for elementary and secondary levels to be used
with computers and tablets. Of those, 336 are for Prathom 1.
Anek said tablet use would increase schools'
expenditures as it would increase electric bills.
Charging a tablet's battery consumed the same amount
of electricity as running a light, he said.
Chularat Saengpassa, Wannapa Khaopa and Saowanee
Nimpanpayungwong
The Nation
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