Guilford County school officials and the manufacturer of tablet computers once used in district classrooms disagree on why thousands of devices broke. Asus, the company that built the more than 15,000 tablet computers used for a time in Guilford County classrooms, is not taking blame for melted chargers. In a statement Asus says is has run tests on its products and found no problems. The tablet program was paused in October after thousands of devices broke and nearly a dozen chargers partially melted. School officials believe the devices were defective. Meanwhile students are without tablets and the school system is working with Amplify, a for-profit education company to find another manufacturer and try to re-start the program.
“This doesn’t really change out view of what happened and our view of what’s needed to move forward, which is still to make sure that we get the products and services at the expected quality,” said Nora Carr, Chief of Staff for Guilford County Schools.
Guilford issued about 15-thousand tablets to middle school students, staff and faculty earlier this year. But almost 15-percent of the tablets suffered breaks and broken glass screens. There were about a dozen partially melted chargers. Carr says the school system is still waiting on an investigative report from Asus. She and others in the system concede it is unlikely for the school to use an Asus product again; and for the federally funded program to resume before next fall.
