Tablet PCs will be distributed to 75,300 first-year middle schoolers in Seoul, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said Wednesday.
The initiative aims at providing customized education in preparation for the introduction of artificial intelligence-assisted digital textbooks.
Schoolkids will use their tablet until they graduate from middle school and will be given one of five models including Samsung's Galaxy Tab S7 FE and Apple's iPad 9th generation.
Last year, the city spent W68 billion on 72,070 tablet PCs for middle school freshmen (US$1=W1,330). It had planned to provide them for new students at the start of this year as well, but the budget was slashed over concerns that kids could use them for other purposes, which delayed the plan until W27.4 billion was allocated in a supplementary budget so they could be distributed in the second semester.
Digital textbooks are a key education policy of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. Starting in 2025, it hopes to equip each student with an "AI teacher" in the form of a chatbot and provide tailored online lessons.
The tablets will be equipped with functions that block gaming and other apps considered harmful to youngsters and limit usage time.
