Almost one year after Thai children were promised computers under the populist One Tablet per Child policy initiated by the Pheu Thai-led coalition government, 10,000 units finally arrived amid criticism that the programme offers the country no benefit and only wastes taxpayer money.
‘‘This is a paradigm shift for the educational system. On its own, the tablet is a good tool, but it still requires teachers and parents playing the role of good facilitators,’’ says Dr Olarn.
But Olarn Chaipravat vigorously defends the policy, saying that the tablets are effective educational tools.
Dr Olarn, an economic and educational adviser to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, is the one who initiated the policy to provide tablets for Prathom 1 students. The scheme requires a total budget of 2.4 billion baht for the first 860,000 units.
"Thailand is the first country in the world to hand out nearly 1 million tablets to children," Dr Olarn said proudly in an interview with the Bangkok Post.
He brushed off criticism that the project has only benefited the political party and done nothing for the taxpayers, saying that the programme can reform the educational system and change the way children learn, moving them away from teacher-centric education.
"Our system is all about one-way communication. Students have to memorise textbooks in order to pass the exams, but they never learn to think," said Dr Olarn.
Dr Olarn said the development of the high-speed internet and the wider availability of wireless coverage have allowed people to connect to the internet whenever they want and at a reasonable price.
The touchscreen tablet is a perfect tool for all ages as it allows for interaction between users and enables the accessing of content without limitations, while other devices, such as the notebook, need a certain level of knowledge for users to type the right keys to find content.
Also, the touchscreen allows children to have fun learning while interacting with more than 200 exercises, such as those involving mathematics, English and science.
"This is a paradigm shift for the educational system. On its own, the tablet is a good tool, but it still requires teachers and parents playing the role of good facilitators," said Dr Olarn.
He also argued that Prathom 1 is not too young for using technology.
"We selected Prathom 1 because six to seven years of age is when the brain develops for learning a particular language, and children can learn how to be responsible for their belongings such as a tablet," Dr Olarn said.
He said the seven-inch touchscreen display is also the appropriate size for this age, and the specifications outlined are sufficient to support essential learning content.
The product quality depends on the specifications and quality control, he noted.
"All leading tablet brands are manufactured in China _ including Apple _ so the product quality depends on quality control."
Dr Olarn added that the government policy is to distribute tablets to students from Prathom 1 to Mathayom 6 and requires a total budget of 30 billion baht. "This is not major spending compared with the 500-billion-baht budget the Education Ministry gets each year."
The government aims to improve the ranking of Thai students under PISA, or the Programme for International Student Assessment, the survey that assesses 15-year-old students around the world and determines whether at the end of their compulsory education they have the skills necessary to participate in society.
He said the aim is to be in the top 20. Thailand is currently ranked 50 out of 65 countries.
Dr Olarn also chairs the Innovation for Education foundation, or innoFED. The foundation is supporting his initiative by selecting Mathayom 1 students from 50 schools to participate in the tablet project. The project starts in July and will be officially announced at the opening ceremony of the foundation today.
The foundation is a community of IT experts and educators promoting the use of technology for education, particularly tablet learning.
Google, Intel Microelectronics, Apple Inc, Hewlett-Packard, Huawei and the Aspire Group are sponsors of the foundation.
"The project is also open to teachers interested in practising tablet-using skills. We plan to sponsor 900 teachers nationwide," Dr Olarn added.