Govt's free tablets for schools project a failure

[buksida]

About 30% of 860,000 tablet computers distributed to Prathom 1 students last year are reported to have broken, a source on the tablet committee said.

He said the information was discovered by the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG), which monitored the government's One Tablet PC Per Child policy in its first year of implementation last year.

The OAG also discovered problems in maintaining the Chinese-made tablets for students.

The supplier, China's Shenzhen Scope Scientific Development, had signed an agreement with a local firm, Advice Distribution, to maintain and repair the tablets for two years.

The OAG report revealed that restoration of damaged tablets took a long time and some branches of Advice Distribution were shut down afterwards.

Full Story: Bangkok Post

Thought: The only winners would have been those getting kickbacks from the acquisition of this sub-standard junk.

Side-thought: Has anyone seen any of these tablets in our province, or was it just Issan that got them?

[Roel]

Zone 3 bidding is done at the moment. Zone 3 covers Central plains and southern provinces. However there seem to be a few delays as some say bidding was rigged. Others complain they cannot order the tablets directly from the manufacturers but must do so through an appointed Thai trading company etc. etc. You get the idea.

[caller]

Side-thought: Has anyone seen any of these tablets in our province, or was it just Issan that got them?

No-one has them in the area of issan (near Korat) where my step-son attends school.

[Takiap]

A few of the school kids in Hua-Hin have received them, including kids from the government school in Borfai. That said, I've only ever seen kids playing games on them. To be honest, I'm amazed any of the tablets have lasted more than about two to three weeks.

[lomuamart]

My sister-in-law's kid had one the the other day when they came round. I would assume that came from school.

[migrant]

They planned on handing out 30,000 ipads to high school students in Los Angeles. After the first group was given out students hacked the restrictions on the internet in 3 days so they could access facebook, games etc. The state is rethinking the program

[margaretcarnes]

Buksi - 30% broken. Does that mean 70% were lost?

[PeteC]

The head Ed guy is disputing the numbers this morning.....

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 16635.html

"Chaturon was responding to a report by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) that 259,000 computer tablets - or 30 per cent of the 858,886 devices handed out - were damaged. He said Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) chief Apichart Jeerawuth had discovered the 30 per cent figure came from a random OAG inspection of 990 tablets at 80 schools in 12 education zones across 11 provinces, which found 295 were broken. Hence the sample group only represented 0.2 per cent of the approximately 30,000 schools.......

[GLCQuantum]

The kids at our school got them (don't know why they bothered giving them to rich kids - most have their own iPads anyway), and the tablets really were a piece of crap.

[Roel]

The head Ed guy is disputing the numbers this morning.....

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 16635.html

"Chaturon was responding to a report by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) that 259,000 computer tablets - or 30 per cent of the 858,886 devices handed out - were damaged. He said Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) chief Apichart Jeerawuth had discovered the 30 per cent figure came from a random OAG inspection of 990 tablets at 80 schools in 12 education zones across 11 provinces, which found 295 were broken. Hence the sample group only represented 0.2 per cent of the approximately 30,000 schools.......

He is absolutely right. A much bigger sample group is needed. After which the percentage will probably go up to 40 or 50%.

[buksida]

Student tablet project a failure

NOT a single student will receive a device under the government's "One Tablet Per Child" project this academic year, as the Chinese supplier chosen by the administration has been having problems from the very beginning, and the Thai supplier has delivered just a few hundred tablet computers to date.
The figure is less than 0.1 per cent of the total the Thai firm it should have delivered. The Chinese supplier is Shenzhen Yitoa Intelligent Control, while the Thai firm is Jasmine Telecom Systems.

A senior official yesterday disclosed that just days after Shenzhen Yitoa Intelligent Control signed purchase contracts with the Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) last September 25, it sought to delay delivery of the devices.

Full Story: The Nation

Thought: Surprise surprise, another failed PT project, no doubt some pockets were filled though.

[johnnyk]

Another scheme to divert public tax money to private pockets. Looks like it may succeeded: money is gone, mission accomplished.