It has been a year since the Thai education system ignored doomsday predictions and launched its biggest new programme in recent memory. Almost every first-grade student in the country put down pencils and spent at least an hour a day with his or her personal tablet. The devices were supplied to fulfil an election promise by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. But the significance of the project goes far beyond politics.
The National Statistical Office (NSO) recently surveyed key participants and came up with interesting conclusions, as detailed in this newspaper on Monday. But it did not measure what is arguably the most significant achievement of the "One Child, One Tablet" programme: that teachers and the whole range of Education Ministry bureaucrats have embraced and supported the initiative.
This seems to prove the ministry is not quite as ancient and hidebound as many have argued. The biggest complaint by teachers in the NSO survey was that many were still waiting for their personal tablets, even though all their students already had them. This flies in the face of some pre-tablet criticism that teachers would leave the devices in their boxes and continue their top-down rote teaching. This has not happened; 98.8% of classrooms nationwide used the tablets. Even shoddy internet access and lack of electricity failed to halt the project.
The actual educational results are encouraging, albeit entirely anecdotal. The NSO survey reported that teachers found the tablets were most effective in improving language skills, both English and Thai. A school director in Bangkok reported that while Thai proficiency improved, penmanship quality dropped. That could cause further debate about whether physical writing is important now that almost everything is typed.
Some deficiencies are clear. Nearly 9% of tablets supplied to students had simple hardware problems. These included broken screens, charging problems and incomplete or wrong software installed. This seems to call for much closer supervision of the Thai and Chinese firms which will supply this year's 1.63 million tablet computers for Mathayom 1 and Prathom 1 pupils.
A quality-control problem affecting such a huge number of devices is simply unacceptable. It indicates a failing of factory quality and supervision by the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Education ministries.
One surprising result was that most schools had no problems with internet connectivity. The claim by the ICT Ministry that it had completed installing broadband internet in 90% of schools seems to be true. It is time to get cracking and hook up the other 10%, chiefly in remote areas.
Arguably the biggest drawback of the One Child, One Tablet programme is its success. Development of software for other grades is reportedly behind schedule for new tablet deliveries. Many of last year's Prathom 1 students are still awaiting upgrades to Prathom 2 software. And students are noticing the physical limitations of their basic tablets. "I'd prefer an iPad," one student told a reporter.
Overall, Tablet Year 1 must be graded at about a "B". It has opened the eyes of both teachers and students about the value _ and problems _ of technology in education. But the contentious election promise has been more success than failure. It is no magic bullet that will solve Thai education's serious problems. But it marks a step forward in the effort.