The auction for the second phase of the government's One Tablet per Child scheme will take place on April 24, says the Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec).
Prathom 1 (Grade 1) students from Don Thong School, in Chachoengsao's Muang district, learn how to use tablet computer they received from the Education Ministry’s Office of the Basic Education Commission in September, 2012. Photo by Tawatchai Kemgumnerd.
About 10 leading tablet computer makers including Acer, Huawei, Samart Corporation, SVOA, Forth Corporation, TCL, Supreme Computer and Shenzhen Scope Scientific Development will likely join the bidding.
Shenzhen Scope provided the tablets for the first phase.
An Obec executive who asked not to be named said the office will likely organise an electronic auction to procure 1.8 million tablets worth 5 billion baht on behalf of seven other education organisations.
Secretary-general Chinnapat Bhumirat said Obec now has no need to seek approval from the cabinet for organising the e-auction.
The source said the computers will be distributed to Prathom 1 and Mathayom 1 students and teachers.
Instead of a single procurement contract, the auction will invite bids for eight contracts in all four regions of the country. The bidding does not limit the number of contracts per bidder.
"Bidders will be allowed to win all the contracts if they offer the best price," the source said.
Qualified bidders must have work experience in government projects worth 50-100 million baht.
The source said tablets will be delivered within 90 days after a purchase contract is signed with winning bidders.
The warranty period for the tablets will be halved to one year.
Tablets for Prathom 1 students will be acquired for 2,720 baht apiece. They will have seven-inch screens, one gigabyte of RAM, eight gigabytes of internal storage and 1.5-gigahertz dual-core processors.
Tablets for Mathayom 1 students will cost 2,920 baht apiece and have eight-inch screens and double the storage capacity of the cheaper computers.
Tablets for teachers will be priced at 3,020 baht apiecet. They will have similar specifications to Mathayom 1 tablets but with an HDMI port and an external SD card. All devices will use the Android operating system, the source said.
Panuwat Khantamoleekul, the managing director of Supreme Distribution, the computer assembler, said the auction's terms of reference should require bid winners to provide their own after-sales service nationwide instead of subcontracting or outsourcing it as in the first phase.