The Ministry of Education is set to revive the ‘one student, one tablet’ initiative originally initiated a decade ago to provide every student and teacher across the nation with a tablet device.
Announcing the plan, Education Minister Pol Gen Permpoon Chidchob said the initiative seeks to promote equal educational opportunities and enhance the quality of education among Thai students.
Pol Gen Permpoon outlined additional goals, including reducing the workload of teachers and educational personnel by streamlining the process of evaluating their academic performance, enabling them to return voluntarily to their home provinces, eliminating the practice of buying positions, and resolving teachers’ debt issues.
According to the education minister, the initiative is intended to alleviate the financial burden on students and diminish disparities in educational opportunities. Officials are currently assessing the program’s cost, considering options such as utilizing the existing budget, borrowing, or renting tablets if necessary.
The “one student, one tablet” program was initially proposed by former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government in 2011. It commenced with the distribution of tablets to 860,000 Grade 1 students in mid-2012, with a budget of 1.7 billion baht. Despite initial skepticism regarding cost and practicality, a survey by the National Statistical Office (NSO) after the first year revealed that the tablets were generally well-received.
Teachers found them particularly effective in improving language skills. However, nearly 9% of the tablets supplied encountered hardware issues, leading to the program’s cancellation after its second year. (NNT)
