The following is from today's BKK Post. (A little long, but I don't know if a link will remain valid after today).

Your comments ?

I think better pay for teachers must surely be one pre-requisite for change. Reasonable salaries would preclude the need for working at other jobs simultaneously, and for milking the system to compensate for poor pay.

Administrative ERROR

A professor who was willing to reveal all supplied SIRIPORN SACHAMUNEEWONGSE with a disturbing picture of mismanagement at one state university

It's 1 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon, and I have just arrived at a state university in Bangkok that shall remain nameless. I am told I will have to park my car in the university's basketball court, as have a few other drivers, due to the limited parking on the congested campus. Stepping out into the airy corridor, I began to take notice of the surroundings of the respected learning institution which boasts an enrolment of more than 12,000 students...

Bangkok Post 26/7/07

//Edit: It is true that on the Bangkok Post website links go dead very fast but for copyright reasons ThaiVisa cannot allow quotations of entire articles from the Bangkok Post. Only a few lines are allowed, plus the link to the article.

Fair enough, Maestro.

A pity that many teachers will thereby miss the article.

The gist of it was that money intended for maintenance/improvement of facilities and programs for students is not being used for such purposes, but rather for vacations (flimsily dressed as "professional development" ) for teachers, on quite an alarming scale, at some Thai universities.

The source, a professor at the university who wishes to remain anonymous, said that over the past 2 years at least 10 million baht has been spent on unnecessary travel and recreation for the staff.

Some teachers do not fulfill basic responsibilities such as turning up to teach classes.

"In time, I learned that it is almost a norm here for the teachers to sign in early and then leave for other commitments."

It is, as the title states, a quite disturbing picture of mismanagement and misappropriation of students' funds.

"In time, I learned that it is almost a norm here for the teachers to sign in early and then leave for other commitments."

It is, as the title states, a quite disturbing picture of mismanagement and misappropriation of students' funds.

This might just be stupid policy... some teachers that I know are required to sign in every day, even if they have no classes to teach on that day. Same sign in policy applies during school holidays... they have to go to the Uni and sign in while all of the students are out on break.

"In time, I learned that it is almost a norm here for the teachers to sign in early and then leave for other commitments."

It is, as the title states, a quite disturbing picture of mismanagement and misappropriation of students' funds.

This might just be stupid policy... some teachers that I know are required to sign in every day, even if they have no classes to teach on that day. Same sign in policy applies during school holidays... they have to go to the Uni and sign in while all of the students are out on break.

Bino, I agree that's stupid policy. (Teaching is different to manufacturing.) However, in the context of the article it is a worrying symptom of the ills besetting that (& other) Universities in Thailand.

Note that I don't wish to blame teachers; I genuinely believe that much could begin to improve if they were, simply, paid decent salaries.