A decade since Asia’s 10th most populous country launched its first ICT Master Plan, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has successfully improved the computer-student ratio to 1:20 on average.
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“The past five years have been focused on setting up the basic IT infrastructure in schools,” Keartisak Sensai, Senior Advisor (ICT for Education), MOE, said to FutureGov Asia Pacific. “Some of our schools are already running one-to-one computing programmes.”
These are hopeful statistics for those hoping to meet the goals stated in the nation’s current ICT Master Plan.
Wilailuck Chulewatanakul, Director of Economic and Social Statistical Bureau, National Statistical Office, Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT), told FutureGov Asia Pacific: “One of the targets of our current ICT Master Plan is to achieve a 50 per cent ICT literacy rate across the entire population of 66 million.”
Next on the agenda is to provide professional development for teachers where they will learn to align the use of technology with pedagogy.
Sensai said: “It is not so much about basic ICT literacy because 80 to 90 per cent of teachers already own personal computers. We are more concerned with how ICT is used to improve teaching in the classroom.”
The Thai MOE is also nursing a keen interest in tablets like Apple’s iPads, believing that these devices can aid learning. “The growing popularity of tablets like the iPad is an area of interest for us. These devices would be great for learning because they are intuitive and easy to use.”
And if iPad prices were to fall in the next five years, “we could roll out tablets with pre-saved electronic books,” said Sensai.
Currently, the country has an internet penetration of approximately 20 per cent, with 30 per cent of households surveyed having at least one computer, and mobile penetration doubling over the last five years to 57 per cent.
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