Some 2,800 small schools face merger

By The Nation

 

Assoc Prof Dr Ekkachai Kisukphan

Some 2,800 small schools with fewer than 40 students each are to be merged , the chairman of the Basic Education Commission said.

 

However, Assoc Prof Dr Ekkachai Kisukphan added that not all 18,000 small schools under the Office of Basic Education Commission that are located near one another would be merged.

 

Ekkachai said the OBEC instead wanted to merge small schools each with fewer than 40 students and close to each other.

 

Ekkachai said the goal of the merger was to allow newly merged schools to teachers for all classrooms as well as sufficient teaching materials and adequate buildings.

 

He said the merger would improve the quality of education and the OBEC would consider the merger case by case instead of using the same criteria nationwide. For example, schools on islands and on mountaintops would be exempt.

 

Ekkachai said the merger would be carried out gradually starting from this year.

 

To address worries that students might find it hard to travel to school after the merger, the OBEC would cooperate with the local administrations to provide subsidies for travel costs.

 

He said the distance would also be taken into account. New schools formed under after merger would not be too far and travel time must not be longer than half an hour, Ekkachai added.

 

He said the OBEC would also consider measures to compensate school directors, who would lose their allowance for the posts and are thus opposed to the merger.

 

The OBEC has surveyed and found that there are 14,796 schools nationwide with fewer than 120 students and 2,845 schools with fewer than 40. There are also 123 other schools in remote areas, including on mountaintops and small islands.

 

Meanwhile, Sumit Suwan, deputy dean of the Faculty of Education of Kasetsart University, said he agreed with the merger of small schools because a lower birth rate has meant fewer students but the number of schools has not changed.

 

He said small schools within a radius of two or three kilometres should be merged.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30374208

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-08-05

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27 minutes ago, webfact said:

He said the merger would improve the quality of education

Quality of education! Who is he laughing at?

I think this gentleman never came to a primary school in the countryside ...
Apart from learning some songs and knowing how to make knots when they are dressed in scouting, they do nothing at all , except spend almost all of their time playing on the football field or sneak out to buy some treats in the boui-boui which is installed right in front of the school while M Prayuth formally defended this kind of operating within 300 meters of a school ...

Girl visiting from Roi Et told us she is number one in her class, when the Mrs said how good that was she asked her how many in the class- two the girl replied. Some Schools need to merge but big or small it's the same totally useless system teaching them what to think rather than how to think. In spite of the rubbish system some kids do rise above it, they can learn more off you tube than in a classroom.

51 minutes ago, webfact said:

The OBEC has surveyed

Why do they have to conduct a survey?  All that is needed is a review of enrollment in the schools as all schools are, or should be, on the inventory of the Ministry of Education.  What a futile exercise.  Their attempt at improving education should not start with merging schools but having proper education and training for teachers, and setting a good and useful curriculum in place nationwide.

'nuf sed

Will free up real estate to build more condos and shopping malls!

How many schools could 1 submarine fund?

4 minutes ago, fforest1 said:

How many schools could 1 submarine fund?

That depends on wether the submarine was yellow or not!In the sixties some drunk Uni students painted the sub in front of the Australian War Memorial and were singing The Beatles "We all live in the yellow submarine the yellow submarine" when the police arrived!

1 hour ago, vinniekintana said:

The demographic crunch hits home.

I wonder what the gubmint will do (given its xenophobia) when the situation gets more desperate

Import young ppl from neighbouring countries?

I got to see that????

 

Exactly, they seem to dislike everyone except maybe the Chinese. I suppose they may be saved if they allow the Chinese to immigrate in great numbers. Plenty of reasonably educated Chinese men with not enough women and not enough industry/job opportunities that would be quite happy to come here, find a pretty wife and dominate the local often poorly educated and lackadaisical population.

On 8/5/2019 at 10:14 AM, Assurancetourix said:

Quality of education! Who is he laughing at?

I think this gentleman never came to a primary school in the countryside ...
Apart from learning some songs and knowing how to make knots when they are dressed in scouting, they do nothing at all , except spend almost all of their time playing on the football field or sneak out to buy some treats in the boui-boui which is installed right in front of the school while M Prayuth formally defended this kind of operating within 300 meters of a school ...

No hope for the school near us then . Since their return to school they have only had about 20 days learning , what with holidays ,  all week sports day , teachers taking time off for family funerals ( one goes , they all go ). etc.

One Eleven year old ( not knocking him , but the teachers ) asked the Mrs. if I spoke English or Falang.

25 minutes ago, NE1 said:

No hope for the school near us then . Since their return to school they have only had about 20 days learning , what with holidays ,  all week sports day , teachers taking time off for family funerals ( one goes , they all go ). etc.

One Eleven year old ( not knocking him , but the teachers ) asked the Mrs. if I spoke English or Falang.

Well, the 11 year old was right. The western countries are

 

Angrit = UK, speak Angrit 

Amelika = USA, speak Angrit 

Farangistan = the rest, speak Falang 

Don't know why they bother having a school in our village . They had half day Friday , No school Monday , back to school Tuesday , No school Wednesday , back to school on Thursday and no school again Friday. ????????