Cabinet to mull tablet plan Tuesday

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra called a meeting yesterday with ministers and agency chiefs from the Foreign, Education, and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) ministries to check on progress of the project and discuss any obstacles. The meeting was held after the PM hosted her weekly TV programme “Yingluck Government Meets the People at Phitsanulok House”, at her official residence.
Suranand said Yingluck wanted the project to be put to Cabinet for consideration as soon as possible, so the government will be able to deliver the tablets in May or June, when the next semester starts.
He said a tri-ministry panel would choose which company the government will buy the tablets from. The premier would not do that.
Suranand denied there was major disagreement over the project between the Education and ICT Ministries, only some misunderstanding after the ministries received different information. They would have to find a resolution to this and the procurement had to be done according to regulations, he said.
“The prime minister wanted the procurement to be done under a government-to-government contract (with China) in order to strengthen the relationship between both countries and prevent budget leakage. She wanted to know the quality of the tablets and how they would be used.”
He said the ICT Ministry told the meeting procurement progress had been slow because it wanted to ensure the government received quality tablets at reasonable prices before giving them to students.
The spokesman insisted that Prathom 1 students (first graders) would have the tablets to use in the next academic year, barring any serious problems such as, obstacles caused by regulations at individual ministries. But the government had not found any such obstacles so far.