One Tablet Per Child Program Begins In Thailand

societyofrobots writes "Thailand has now put the first 50,000 of a planned 800,000 tablets into the hands of elementary students. Each tablet costs only $80/unit, runs Android ICS, and was manufactured in China. Opponents claim it to be a very expensive populist policy to 'buy votes', while proponents argue it could bypass the root causes of poor education in the country: outdated books and unskilled teachers."

Sounds good to me

[steveha]

This isn't a magical silver bullet; nothing is. But these tablets cost $80 and are planned to last for three years; that's less than $30 per year, and then the student gets to keep the 3-year-old tablet. The tablet can serve as a textbook, or can run interactive lessons, and the article says the Thai education ministry is developing tutorial content that will run on the tablets.

Like the OLTP XO computers, these tablets will have no moving parts, and no cooling fan. If they are well-made, they should be reliable even in Thailand's climate; and they may be more cost-effective than paper textbooks.

P.S. It's amazing to me how so many people here can speed-read a summary and go straight to the dismissive comments about how this won't solve anything, etc. Presumably the Thai education ministry studied the problem and came to the conclusion that these tablets would be worth buying. Maybe you really are that much smarter than the Thai education ministry... or, maybe you shouldn't be so quick to make a snap judgement.

steveha

Re:Sounds good to me

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in Thailand. For those who don't the tablets were one of Prime Minister Yingluck's election promises. There is at least an element of grandstanding to it. It's the Shinawatra clans basic modus operandi for winning elections - high visibility populism.

That doesn't necessarily mean it's not a good idea.

Anecdotal evidence

[k(wi)r(kipedia)]

Anecdotal evidence [itproportal.com] from Africa that such a program MIGHT work:

[A team from the One Laptop Per Child Project] left boxed tablets in a village and within three hours the children had opened the boxes and worked out how to turn the tablets on. After just a couple of weeks of unassisted use, the children were seen competing with each when reciting the alphabet, which they learned from one of the many pre-installed apps.