Fibre-optic link for universities and vocational schools

The Office of the Higher Education Commission is expecting to finish laying down a fibre-optic infrastructure called the National Education Network (NEdNet) to 89 universities and 415 vocational schools before the end of this year.It will extend the fibre-optic infrastructure to cover 2,294 schools on behalf of the Office of The Basic Education Commission by the end of 2012.

The aim is improve Thai educational information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and boost ICT-literacy skills among all Thai students.The deputy secretary-general of the Office of the Higher Education Commission, Kamjorn Tatiyakavee, said the new fibre-optic network would cover a distance of 8,000 kilometres this year, linking 185 education-area offices and 89 universities at a speed of 1,000Mbps-Nx1,000Mbps. The network will also cover 415 vocational schools around the country at a speed of 100-1,000Mbps.

He said the network would offer the opportunity for students and teachers to enter a knowledge-based society and introduce them to life-long learning.Next year, the office plans to extend the network by a further 8,000 kilometres to cover 2,294 schools at a speed of 10 to 100Mbps. Beyond this, the next step will be to extend fibre-to-the-school coverage to a further 30,000 schools.

"There are now around 30,656 schools under the care of The Basic Education Commission that are connected to the Internet via ADSL, satellite and leased lines. About 1,965 schools have no connection to the Internet, which means they suffer lost opportunities to access knowledge in terms of e-learning and distance learning via cyber networks," Kamjorn said.

As well as its effort to provide network infrastructure, the Office of the Higher Education Commission will support universities in the development of digital libraries. It will also spend about Bt200 million a year to license digital libraries from international sources such as Science Direct, ACM Digital library and Academic Search Elite, in order to create a knowledge centre that will allow teachers and students to access, search for, and retrieve knowledge and digital content.

The office is also preparing an evaluation in support of the government's plan to provide free tablet PCs to primary-school students under the One Tablet per Child project, and free Wi-Fi under the conditions of the universal service obligation.The government is expected to begin delivery of the first group of 800,000 tablets to primary-school students next year.

October 28, 2011

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