BANGKOK: Thailand plans to distribute about 1.7 million tablet computers to students and teachers this year in the world’s largest handout of the devices for education, officials said yesterday.
Nine firms from countries including China, India, Germany and the Netherlands are set to join an online tender in April to supply the tablet computers, according to the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
“This will be the world’s largest amount of tablets given away by a government for education,” said Surapol Navamavadhana, a government adviser involved in the “One Tablet Per Child” scheme.
“This is the touch era. Whatever children do, they want to touch things,” he told AFP.
With each tablet expected to cost roughly $ 100, the total value of the orders looks set to be worth more than four billion baht ($ 140 million).
They will be given to primary students aged about six years old as well as to middle-school students aged between 12 and 13 years, along with 54,000 tablets to be given to teachers.
The ruling Puea Thai party, linked to former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, pledged to issue free handheld computers to students as one of a raft of pledges that helped it to election victory in 2011.
About 850,000 tablets were already given to students last year, supplied by Chinese firm at a cost of about 2.2 billion baht ($ 75 million).
Next year the government aims to distribute a further seven million tablets, according to the ICT ministry.
The tablets will remain the property of the schools for three years, during which time the students can take them home each day. After that the students will own them.
But the authorities is calling on teachers and parents to ensure that students do not stay glued to the screens for too long.
“Students should not use the tablets for more than two hours per day otherwise they won’t be able to differentiate between textbooks and tablets,” said Soratda Phumwiphat, another adviser involved in the scheme.
Thailand to distribute 1.7 million tablets to boost education
Thailand to distribute 1.7 million tablets to boost education
UN chief says those behind ‘unacceptable’ Homs attack must face justice
- France says the "terror" attack is designed to destabilize the country
UNITED NATIONS/PARIS: United Nations chief Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the deadly attack on Friday prayers at a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs, and said the perpetrators should be brought to justice.
“The Secretary-General reiterates that attacks against civilians and places of worship are unacceptable. He stresses that those responsible must be identified and brought to justice,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
The explosion killed at least eight worshippers at a mosque in a predominantly Alawite area of Homs, with an Islamist militant group claiming responsibility.
France also condemned the attack, calling it an “act of terrorism” designed to destabilize the country.
The attack “is part of a deliberate strategy aimed at destabilizing Syria and the transition government,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement.
It condemned what it said was an attempt to “compromise ongoing efforts to bring peace and stability.”
The attack, during Friday prayers, was the second blast in a place of worship since Islamist authorities took power a year ago, after a suicide bombing in a Damascus church killed 25 people in June.
In a statement on Telegram, the extremist group Saraya Ansar Al-Sunna said its fighters “detonated a number of explosive devices” in the Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib Mosque in the central Syrian city.
