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Biggest computer bid for schools
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SHENZHEN Municipal Education Bureau planned to purchase 10,000 computers totalling 50 million yuan (US$6 million) through public bidding this year to equip its less advanced 180 primary and middle schools.
This is to modernize its education network system and improve distance education programmes among its schools.
It is said to be the first large-scale computer purchase for schools in major Chinese cities.
Vice-Director-General Chen Guanguang of the bureau said at the bid invitation conference on Wednesday that the bureau is striving to make computers as widely used in the city's schools as in their counterparts in the United States through purchases by bidding within the next three years.
He said the computers and software, which are mainly used for IT courses, will enable schools' online learning via the Internet.
Eleven computer manufacturers including Legend, Dell, Great Wall and TCL are competing for the bid. The quotations of companies like Legend, Founder and TCL, which have a bigger market share, are lower than other manufacturers. TCL unexpectedly proposed to donate five per cent of the contract total as a quality guarantee fund to the education bureau if it wins the bid. The winner will be announced a week later.
Chen said the occupancy rate is expected to reach one computer for 14-15 students, much higher than the national average of one for 120 students, when the purchase is completed. The ratio is to reach 4-5 students a computer, the American school average, in three years when the whole three-year purchasing package is completed.
(Richard Han)
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