China offers loan for tablet scheme

The Education Ministry was told of the offer by PM Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday.
“The loan will be big enough to procure tablets for all students,” the ministry’s permanent-secretary Panita Kamphu na Ayutthaya said.
This year, the government ordered 900,000 tablets from a Chinese supplier via the government-to-government arrangement. Currently, the projected number of tablets is big enough to supply Prathom 1 students only.
Panita said if Thailand accepted the offer, it could procure tablets for all students and gradually repay the debt later.
She said Yingluck had assigned the Education Ministry to study the pros and cons of the offer and determine the budget needed for the One Tablet Per Child scheme.
Panita was speaking after a meeting with Yingluck, Education Minister Phongthep Thepkanjana, Deputy Education Minister Sermsak Pongpanich, and top education officials.
The Education Ministry is now preparing to hold e-auctions for the procurement of 1.6 million tablets in the 2013 Fiscal Year.
Half of them will be for Prathom 1 students, and the other 800,000 for Mathayom 1 students.
“The procurements will be divided by regions but the e-auctions for all five regions will take place on the same day,” Panita said.
The Office of Basic Education Commission’s secretary-general Chinnapat Bhumirat said his agency was exploring measures to encourage private/government teachers to develop content for tablets.
“We may hold contests or promote the teachers’ academic ranks,” he said.
On the project to provide loans for graduates who wished to start their own businesses, Panita said the Office of the Higher Education Commission had already approved loans for three companies under this project.