Heads rolling over poor-quality school lunches

By The Nation

 

 

The directors of 12 schools are to be transferred after an initial investigation determined that their students were being served low-quality lunches or that the schools’ lunch-budget management lacked transparency.

 

Boonrak Yodphet, secretary-general of the Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec), said on Wednesday that investigators had so far visited 12 schools in the jurisdictions of 10 educational service area offices across the country.

 

He said further probes were required and school directors were being transferred.

 

Lunch-budget mismanagement first turned up at two schools, one under Prachin Buri Primary Education Service Area Office 1 and the other under Phitsanulok Office 2.

 

Factfinders then looked into an allegation of graft resulting in substandard lunches being served at a school under Sing Buri Secondary Education Service Area Office 5, Boonrak said.

 

More recently, the director of Ban Tha Mai School under Surat Thani Primary Education Service Area Office 2 was dismissed from the civil service pending an investigation into alleged lunch-budget embezzlement that resulted in kindergarten pupils eating the same meagre meal every day – fermented rice noodles with fish sauce.

 

Substandard lunches also led to the director of a school under Narathiwat Primary Education Service Area Office 2 being transferred pending a disciplinary probe.

 

Boonrak said the directors of three schools under Surin Primary Education Service Area Office 3 were being transferred pending probes over substandard lunches and budget graft.

 

Schools under Lop Buri’s Primary Education Service Area Offices 1 and 2 and a third under Khon Kaen Primary Education Service Area Office 1 were also under scrutiny, he said.

 

Only one school – in Ang Thong province – had been cleared of such allegations so far, he said.

 

As a proactive measure, Boonrak has instructed the directors of educational service areas across the country to examine lunch-budget allocation procedures to make sure everything was in order.

 

Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin had pressed Obec to make sure lunch budgets were being managed properly and transparently.

 

Boonrak said complaints about expensive meal components were a matter for Obec and related agencies to resolve.

 

He cited an Obec policy to promote the growing of vegetables and raising of fish and chicken at rural schools to help keep meal costs low, which he said “many” schools were already doing.

 

He suggested that communities be encouraged to help by selling locally raised produce to the schools at low prices.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30348197

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-06-20

I should be inured to it by now, but the depth of the corruption and theft here never ceases to amaze me.

Giving kids a cheap and shitty lunch so they can skim money off the funds is really nasty.

And it seems to be rampant. Only one school checked so far has a clean bill of health!

Every other school checked was doing it. How low can these people stoop?

Maybe its all about the elections (probably) but I havent seen this many corruption cases being followed up ever in my 10 years here in Thailand. 

 

Still the big fish like the watch man stay safe but a lot of corruption is at least attacked. I would like it more if they applied this better to everyone but still I can't deny how much corruption cases are being investigated and how many convictions there have already been while back a PTP guy and a few school heads already. 

9 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

I should be inured to it by now, but the depth of the corruption and theft here never ceases to amaze me.

Giving kids a cheap and shitty lunch so they can skim money off the funds is really nasty.

And it seems to be rampant. Only one school checked so far has a clean bill of health!

Every other school checked was doing it. How low can these people stoop?

"How low can these people stoop?" as low as necessary to skim a few Baht for themselves.

If guilty, they should be sacked immediately, fully audited and made to pay back double retribution and never allowed back into any government, semi government or government funded employment.

28 minutes ago, webfact said:

Heads rolling over poor-quality school lunches

Is that rolling in the aisles?

 

 

how about a parents committee being set-up in each school to oversee what is going on , not just the of skimming funds, but teachers behaviour etc. They need to get over this "Teachers can do no wrong BS" if there is a problem it should be highlighted immediately. 

9 minutes ago, Artisi said:

how about a parents committee being set-up in each school to oversee what is going on , not just the of skimming funds, but teachers behaviour etc. They need to get over this "Teachers can do no wrong BS" if there is a problem it should be highlighted immediately. 

Parents checking what is going on, good idea, it is going on in many schools now.

At my wifes school parents are invited in, to check/ help, in fact 1 of the village ladies comes in daily and helps prepare lunch for the children.

Many times my wife takes in some veg from my garden to give the children a bit extra.

Edited June 20, 20188 yr by colinneil

It's all smoke and mirrors. 

This just takes away the heat from the billions and billions of baht that has been stolen through ministry of education and various other programmes. Seems to go in a circle. Billions stolen, fact finding committee find all allegations are true, disciplinary committee brought in. No criminal charges, no return of money. Case goes quiet, move on to next case. 

Just now, greenchair said:

It's all smoke and mirrors. 

This just takes away the heat from the billions and billions of baht that has been stolen through ministry of education and various other programmes. Seems to go in a circle. Billions stolen, fact finding committee find all allegations are true, disciplinary committee brought in. No criminal charges, no return of money. Case goes quiet, move on to next case. 

Unfortunately you are probably 100% correct. 

Parents should take an active interest as well.

No reason why some mothers can't form a group and monitor their kids food at school.

12 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Parents should take an active interest as well.

No reason why some mothers can't form a group and monitor their kids food at school.

One major problem is that teachers are considered to be on the same level as your "God" meaning they must be treated as such. 

11 minutes ago, Artisi said:

One major problem is that teachers are considered to be on the same level as your "God" meaning they must be treated as such. 

Don't have a god.

Nor do I considering anyone being above me or below me. Stopped calling people Sir or Ma'am the day I left the army. Even then I wasn't deferring to the person, I only did it because I was forced to.

Edit.

extra ing on consider. ?

Edited June 20, 20188 yr by overherebc

4 minutes ago, Artisi said:

One major problem is that teachers are considered to be on the same level as your "God" meaning they must be treated as such. 

I agree with you but not all teachers, yes some think they are above others, but not all.

My wife is the most down to earth person, at the weekend she was with her family ,dam naa,. planting rice.

She works at school, comes home changes then is outside feeding cows, tending the veg garden which i cant access.

She does not plaster her face with make up.

Now regarding your point as teachers being god, you are correct about some of them, we get many teachers visiting my wife at weekends, some of them make me want to puke, with their high and mighty attitude, airs and graces.

1 hour ago, darksidedog said:

I should be inured to it by now, but the depth of the corruption and theft here never ceases to amaze me.

 

Given the hierarchical/pyramid structure here, along with seeing those at the top feeding at the trough, it just becomes part of the social contract.

 

Seeing the 2nd in command with what, 30+ expensive wristwatches, everyone just falls into line.

 

That said, the levels of corruption under the junta are staggeringly high. The usual skim was what, ~ 15%. These pigs seem to think they're entitled to closer to 50%. I guess they figure they have to grab everything they can before a brief return to "democracy"?

 

 

Edited June 20, 20188 yr by mtls2005

Teach the kids economics by nicking the lunch money the embezzling cycle never stops peddling.

2 hours ago, overherebc said:

2 hours ago, Artisi said:

One major problem is that teachers are considered to be on the same level as your "God" meaning they must be treated as such. 

Don't have a god.

Nor do I considering anyone being above me or below me. Stopped calling people Sir or Ma'am the day I left the army. Even then I wasn't deferring to the person, I only did it because I was forced to.

Edit.

extra ing on consider. ?

I don't have a dog either, but I'm dyslexic.

I do take the point about the way teachers are treated, unfortunately, putting them on a pedestal.

 

2 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

I don't have a dog either, but I'm dyslexic.

I do take the point about the way teachers are treated, unfortunately, putting them on a pedestal.

 

Even some of the expat teachers have the 'attitude' 

I always ask, what ages of kids do you teach?  If they answer 5 and 6 year olds I usually say something like 'isn't that just colouring in classes.'

Yet more corruption not yet resolved.

 

'Transferring' directors is not sufficient punishment, yes it's the 'Thai way', but it's the 'Thai way' in order to protect favours and IOU's featuring in the government. In other words, it's the 'Thai way to ignore corruption for as long as possible and then only to issue smacks on the wrist.

 

The 'Thai way' is not good enough.

2 minutes ago, KiwiKiwi said:

Yet more corruption not yet resolved.

 

'Transferring' directors is not sufficient punishment, yes it's the 'Thai way', but it's the 'Thai way' in order to protect favours and IOU's featuring in the government. In other words, it's the 'Thai way to ignore corruption for as long as possible and then only to issue smacks on the wrist.

 

The 'Thai way' is not good enough.

I wouldn't deny that for a moment. However, it the Thai's country and until they decide to do something else, it's here to stay.

 

3 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

I wouldn't deny that for a moment. However, it the Thai's country and until they decide to do something else, it's here to stay.

 

Agree. One can only hope that the cradle-to-the-grave propaganda and cultural conditioning that has taken in place in Thailand does not extend for the next several generations, as well it might unless something extraordinary happens.

'School directors were transferred"? To another school? Like priests transferred to another church on another continent?

 

Quote

The directors of 12 schools are to be transferred after an initial investigation determined that their students were being served low-quality lunches or that the schools’ lunch-budget management lacked transparency

and

 

Quote

Boonrak Yodphet, secretary-general of the Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec), said on Wednesday that investigators had so far visited 12 schools in the jurisdictions of 10 educational service area offices across the country.

 

Am I reading this incorrectly? 100% failure?

 

Btw, the quality of the food might be the least of our concern considering what their brain are being fed. Add the addiction to video games (not just a Thai issue) or to violent movies (not just a Thai issue as well).

 

Lastly, considering half of the English lexicon is largely bad food for the brain as half of it is misspelled (phonemically) and proven to delay literacy by at least 3 years in all Commonwealth countries, to cause dyslexia in a high percentage of kids who probably be okay and who struggle to learn -and delaying learning of English as a second language, the world lingua franca, preventing social mobility, and preventing student-led pedagogy, one should ask why everyone is so upset about substandard food when there are big issues to fix at home. This substandard food for the brain has been fed to the masses for 250 years and virtually no one gives a damn except a small  number of people in the past like Shaw and Carnegie and some academic today. If this was a car with half of it being faulty, it would be recalled right away. It does highlight how dysfunctional people are (selfish) and how broken other systems (electoral, political,...) are inadequate, too, in the West. But, we can blame kids, parents, teachers. Here, at least, they are removing some directors, although it is odd that this is happening one the eve of an election. What will happen to those directors though? What kind of food is really going to be given to kids? What is considered "nutritional"? The food sponsored by XYZ? That also happens in the West.

5 hours ago, webfact said:

The directors of 12 schools are to be transferred after an initial investigation determined that their students were being served low-quality lunches

 

5 hours ago, webfact said:

investigators had so far visited 12 schools in the jurisdictions of 10 educational service area offices across the country.

Thoose combined seems like a 100% jackpot of pure embezzlement too me.

2 hours ago, bluesofa said:

I don't have a dog either, but I'm dyslexic.

I do take the point about the way teachers are treated, unfortunately, putting them on a pedestal.

 

just watch your dog(ma) doesn't get run over by your kar(ma)

Edited June 20, 20188 yr by Artisi

1 hour ago, JestSetter said:

'School directors were transferred"? To another school? Like priests transferred to another church on another continent?

 

and

 

 

Am I reading this incorrectly? 100% failure?

 

Btw, the quality of the food might be the least of our concern considering what their brain are being fed. Add the addiction to video games (not just a Thai issue) or to violent movies (not just a Thai issue as well).

 

Lastly, considering half of the English lexicon is largely bad food for the brain as half of it is misspelled (phonemically) and proven to delay literacy by at least 3 years in all Commonwealth countries, to cause dyslexia in a high percentage of kids who probably be okay and who struggle to learn -and delaying learning of English as a second language, the world lingua franca, preventing social mobility, and preventing student-led pedagogy, one should ask why everyone is so upset about substandard food when there are big issues to fix at home. This substandard food for the brain has been fed to the masses for 250 years and virtually no one gives a damn except a small  number of people in the past like Shaw and Carnegie and some academic today. If this was a car with half of it being faulty, it would be recalled right away. It does highlight how dysfunctional people are (selfish) and how broken other systems (electoral, political,...) are inadequate, too, in the West. But, we can blame kids, parents, teachers. Here, at least, they are removing some directors, although it is odd that this is happening one the eve of an election. What will happen to those directors though? What kind of food is really going to be given to kids? What is considered "nutritional"? The food sponsored by XYZ? That also happens in the West.

All well and good, but - the issue is really about skimming money out of the system resulting in poor value food being dished up to the kids- nothing to do with "English lexicon" and the rest of the sermon.

Plus I don't really follow your  line of thought "food might be the least of our concern" - quality food for growing kids is paramount to good development and many low income families are relying of decent food for their kids at school, in some cases probably the best meal they might get all day - but of course if you haven't been past the boundary of Bangkok or what ever city you live in - you wouldn't really understand how tough it is out there for some people. 

'Heads rolling over poor-quality school lunches'

 

Watch out or they'll turn up in the green curry soup.

 who got rolled?

 

9 hours ago, webfact said:

The directors of 12 schools are to be transferred

Weren't paying their 'taxes'? 

Good quality, varied, lunches with a daily choice at my son's govt school.

18 hours ago, webfact said:

Heads rolling over poor-quality school lunches

Good.

Make more roll.

3 minutes ago, Anak Nakal said:

18 hours ago, webfact said:

Heads rolling over poor-quality school lunches

Good.

Make more roll.

Hmm, I don't think there's any bread on the lunch menu in order to make more rolls?