Not signing contract may make it difficult for govt to meet tablet deadline
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Since the signing of the tabletPC purchase contract was postponed yesterday, it might become quite difficult for the government to deliver the devices to firstgrade students when schools reopen in mid May.
The government and the Chinese company postponed the signing of the deal yesterday to next Tuesday, Information and Communications Technology Minister Anudith Nakornthap said, adding that the delivery schedule was also likely to be delayed. However, he said the government was doing its best to meet the May deadline.
“The Office of the Attorney General has already returned the draft to the ICT Ministry, which has prepared all the documents. We are waiting for Shenzhen Scope Scientific Development to tell us when it is ready to sign the contract,” he added.
In response to reports that the company had not obtained a bank guarantee, he said the ministry would have to look into the issue.
Earlier this week, Anudith said his ministry would send a draft of the contract to the Attorney General for review, and expected it to be signed by yesterday.
The first batch of 2,000 tablets is due to be delivered for inspection 15 days after the contract is signed. Anudith said the devices will be closely checked and if any flaws are discovered, the entire manufacturing process will have to be revamped from the start.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Suchart Tadathamrongvej said about one million tablets, requiring a budget of Bt2.4 billion, would be bought for Prathom 1 students in both government and private schools.
On Tuesday, ministry officials showed Prathom 1 students how they could use their tablets.
Chinnapat Bhumirat, secretarygeneral of the Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec), said 336 lessons for English and Thai languages, maths, social studies and science would be installed in each tablet in addition to PDF files. Obec will also provide a dictionary as well as drawing and painting applications, and is wondering if it should include multiplication tables, poetry and other applications.
