Indonesia is expected to become the fourth largest market for mobile devices, surpassing 100 million active monthly users in 2018, according to a recent report by eMarketer.
To better serve students in remote areas of the country, to cut down cost and to overall improve the quality of education, the Ministry of Education and Culture announced that it will replace physical textbooks with tablets and ebooks in the coming years.
According to Indonesia’s Minister of Education and Culture, Anies Baswedan, there are currently more than 50 million students in the country who are taught by 3 million teachers.
The E-Sabak will be preloaded with electronic textbooks and learning applications. It will have a data connection provided by PT Telkom and be distributed in remote areas at the start of the program with plans to extend the program to all parts of education in Indonesia down the road.
At the moment there is no information available about the device itself, who will be the manufacturer, which operating system it will run, or the pricing for the government. Time will tell if the Indonesian program will run smoother than India’s Aakash tablet which aims to provide students with a low-cost tablet based on Android. DataWind, the manufacturer of the Aakash had its IPO in July 2014.
Back in 2011 the government in South Korea announced a $2.4 billion program to replace all textbooks with e-readers and tablets by 2015. The program was stopped only one year later.
In Europe, the French government announced to provide 45.000 students with tablets by 2016. The devices will be manufactured in France, most likely by Archos, and run either Android or Windows.
via Tech in Asia
Further Reading
- E-Sabak Ganti Buku Pelajaran di Indonesia | CNN Indonesia
- 2 Billion Consumers Worldwide to Get Smart(phones) by 2016 | eMarketer
- Why South Korea Is Putting the Brakes on the Switch to Digital Textbooks | Good
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