BANGKOK, 30 August 2011 – The Ministry of Education has initially prepared a budget of 3 billion THB for the one tablet PC per child policy while allowing the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to be in charge of the content.
Speaking of the one tablet PC per child policy of the ruling Pheu Thai Party, Education Minister Woravat Auapinyakul insisted that the policy required collaboration with many related sides. He said the Ministry had conferred with the ICT Ministry about the preparation of the content and the latter had agreed to be responsible for the matter.
Initially, the Education Ministry plans to spend a total of 3 billion THB on the procurement of the tablet PCs. It is being considered whether the Office of Vocational Education Commission should be tasked with handling the assembly process. The Minister reaffirmed that the devices would be strictly distributed to students through schools. However, the schools, which will oversee the maintenance of the tablets, will be the ones to decide whether or not the students can take the devices home.
Mr Woravat then emphasized the importance of the content, which will become part of the curricula, citing that the tablet PCs would be of no use unless the content was fully ready.
