‘Very poor’ students to be given financial help from November

By THE NATION

 

File photo

 

THE EQUITABLE Education Fund (EEF) expects to soon start delivering financial help to “very poor” students.

 

An assessment of potential candidates for assistance will be done in collaboration with the Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) before the end of next month. 

 

“Very poor students are children whose household’s per-capita income is only around Bt1,281 a month or Bt42.7 a day,” said EEF acting manager Supakorn Buasai. He said the review would first focus on junior-secondary students. 

 

The evaluation would verify the national identity card numbers of students, their assets, the condition of their houses and related criteria. 

 

A 16-school survey among students of impoverished families found these youths faced several problems. About one-third came from broken families or had seen their family members get involved in drugs. Most rarely ate breakfast and many spent from 30 minutes to an hour walking from home to get to school. Often, they had medical issues, too. 

 

“This group of students is at risk of dropping out,” said Supakorn, who is concerned about the impact that would have on their lives. He said the EEF intended to help impoverished students by providing money needed to pay for their breakfast, transportation and enhanced educational opportunities. 

 

EEF and Obec would also survey the needs of these students on a regular basis until they graduate. 

 

Obec secretary-general Boonrux Yodpheth expressed confidence that the collaboration between the two organisations would succeed in helping children in need. 

 

Being close to the students, teachers and schools would play a role in reporting those that needed help, he said.

 

EEF assistant manager Kraiyos Patrawat said his organisation had already developed an IT platform to facilitate the process. 

 

“It’s called iSEE. Users can access it via its website or mobile application,” he said.

 

He said iSEE was easy to use and facilitated fast information-processing to support getting help to children in need.

 

“The document burdens on teachers and school executives will significantly ease,” Kraiyos said. “Information on the platform can also be printed conveniently for contact with authorities.”

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30355661

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-10-03

The last fund to help poor students was stolen by bureaucrats on an industrialized scale.

 

What new, specific measures have you taken to ensure that the money gets to those in need?

What new controls have you implemented to account for the money?

What new measures have you taken to audit the money?

 

I assume, because it is not mentioned, that the answer to my three questions are: 'None', 'None' and 'None'.

 

Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and expecting different results. How is this program not a poster child of Einstein's quotation? 

 

As it seems that nothing has changed, it is a logical assumption that it will simply be stolen, exactly the same as the last batch...

 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The evaluation would verify the national identity card numbers of students, their assets, the condition of their houses and related criteria. 

'related criteria' seems even more unmeasurable , corruption lurkith on the whole scheme

Ahh, a new pot for someone to abuse

‘Very poor’ students to be given financial help from November' - should read 'Local Officials will plunder this fund'.

Let us hope the money goes into the pockets of the needy and not into the pockets of greedy and corrupt officials administering the scheme.

Promises are many, must be an election coming up!

Will it be implemented? ????