Thai Cabinet Approves Measures To Curb Student Brawls

[webfact]

Cabinet Approves Measures to Curb Student Brawls

BANGKOK: -- Today's Cabinet meeting has not finalized its decision on sending violent vocational college students to the strife-torn South for rehabilitation.

Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat stated that today's Cabinet meeting had no conclusion on his ministry's proposal to dispatch students charged with brawling to the southern border provinces.

Chinnaworn said the recommendation aimed to solve the aggressive behavior in those students by having them conduct community services in the strife-torn region.

The rehabilitation program will be co-designed by the Education Ministry and military agencies in the area.

The Cabinet, instead, endorsed a measure requiring vocational colleges to compile individual profiles of their students to facilitate official observation of their activities.

The plan also requires related agencies to engineer an integrated curriculum to bring the brawling students together.

Today's meeting also approved the Defense Ministry's revised version of a contact to purchase 96 armored vehicles from Ukraine.

Under the revised pact, the ministry will change its order to vehicles with engines from a Deutsch brand to those with MTU (M-T-U) engines.

The revision followed a German ban on the export of Deutsch engines to Thailand following its recent political unrest.

The army chief will visit Ukraine between September 9 and 12 to sign for the receipt of the fleet.

The acting government spokesperson said the change in the armed vehicles will not be a waste to state budget as the replaced engines do not affect their efficiency.

The Cabinet also approved the appointment of the National Culture Committee Secretary General Somchai Seonglai as the permanent secretary of the Culture Ministry.

It approved the promotion of Norkhun Suthipong to the post of permanent secretary from his present post of deputy.

Among the Cabinet resolutions, the premier also asked Cabinet members to speed up their flood relief assistance in the provinces and seek the ways to prevent government projects from being affected by the inundation.

After the meeting, ministers from the ruling Democrat Party had a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban at Government House.

Social Development and Human Security Minister Issara Somchai revealed that the deputy premier urged him and his fellow ministers to encourage ministry officials under their supervision about the government's national unity plan.

He also said Suthep urged them to visit their constituents more frequently and expand the number of party members.

-- Tan Network 2010-09-07

[asiawatcher]

Was this topic about student brawlers or the Cabinet decisions or ....? Slightly off topic I feel.

[Thai at Heart]

If this isn't a rather cynical attempt to hide one story inside another, I don't know what is.

[gotlost]

To bad they cant make the hard decision and send the punks south but that is to be expected.

[webfact]

Cabinet nod for anti-brawling measures

By The Nation

Chinnaworn denies proposing deep South bootcamp idea

The Cabinet yesterday approved proactive measures aimed at solving the problem of student brawls, while Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat denied having proposed the sending of errant students to boot camps in the three southernmost provinces.

Chinnaworn said the Education Ministry would spearhead collaboration among agencies to resolve the problem.

He denied the ministry planned to send "atrisk" students to the three southernmost provinces. "It was just an idea that we haven't yet decided to take up," he said.

The measures that were approved include the setting up of a schools, parents and students network as a longterm solution.

The deputy prime minister for national security, Suthep Thaugsuban, declined to comment on the ministry's reported idea to send atrisk students to the deep South, which has been mired in almost daily violence since early 2004.

Meanwhile, as adults were trying to solve the problem of brawling, students continued to fight.

Muang Pathum Thani police yesterday morning arrested 20 students from Pathumthani Technical College and confiscated three knives from them, as they were about to clash with those from a rival college.

Following the report of a student brawl and a pingpong bomb being thrown at a 33 (Pathum ThaniSanam Luang) bus in front of Muang Pracha housing estate, police set up eight checkpoints around the area while another team rushed to the scene.

Finding that the bus had left, police interviewed five students from the technical college at the bus stop and checked out a Toyota Vigo pickup, the back of which was covered by canvas. The truck was driven by Pathumthani Technical College student Chayanon Thongard, 18.

Police found 14 students hidden in the back of the truck, with three knives on them.

The 20 students were taken to Muang police station, before their parents were contacted to pick them up. Those carrying knives were each fined Bt500, while those failing to present ID cards were fined Bt100, police said.

One of the students, Sanglek Kanluang, said they had been waiting for a 33 bus but did not board it when it came along, as they saw Laemthong Technology College students were on board.

However, as the bus left, an explosion was heard, possibly from a pingpong bomb thrown by the rival students, he said. No one was hurt, so he and his friends were ready to chase them, but the police arrived at the scene and arrested them first.

Meanwhile, Samut Prakan's Bang Bo district police yesterday brought 50 atrisk students from Kanchanapisek Samutprakan Technical College to visit Samut Prakan Prison and learn about the consequences of youths taking part in reckless actions.

The students talked with senior students who had been involved in brawls and were serving time in jail, as police hoped this would make them fearful of punishment and more conscious of where their actions could land them.

In related news, Dr Suriyadev Tripati, director of Mahidol University's National Institute for Child and Family Development, called for the making available of space for youths to express themselves creatively and for the training for parents to raise their children properly via 6,000 family development centres nationwide.

He also suggested that the Education Ministry should continuously instill a volunteer spirit into youths, so they could direct their immense energy into doing something useful to society.

During the first year at college, students could be sent to undertake activities for the community or underprivileged persons, so that they acquired the skill of giving. Then they could be taught academically and vocationally, he said.

They would not need to complete study programmes in the usual three years but in four or five years, Suriyadev said, adding that classroom learning should also discuss reallife questions while networks of teachers, parents and community members watched out for and solved problems together.

-- The Nation 2010-09-08

[HAL9000]

Was this topic about student brawlers or the Cabinet decisions or ....?

The reporter forgot to mention why the APCs were needed:

1) For police to tackle student gangs

2) For said students to do community service in counter-insurgency

[junglist]

And you wonder why the South wishes to break away. Because Bangkok views them as a punishment for the scum they can’t control. Sad and Stupid.

[SomTumTiger]

I've got a great way to curb student brawling - put them in jail.

[junglist]

I've got a great way to curb student brawling - put them in jail.

If you run you'll get my vote. Or as my father said when ever i was stupid in youth, "Time to grow up and get a job".

[Foggy Bottom]

Students brawling have at the root of the problem an over-emphasised "them and us" culture. Within Thailand this is exacerbated by central and regional government's continual and ongoing support for dual standards at all levels regarding rules and pricing for foreigners. At adolescent level, the foreigner concept gets extrapolated to anyone not in their gang, school, or from their village / moobaan.

Drop all the xenophobic and usuristic laws allowing foreigners legally be be double-charged etc, and one "official" cause of "them and us" mentality is removed. Expand the military cadet forces for teenagers as a way of teaching discipline skills and teamwork (using a western style cadet forces system where it is a voluntary activity, not a commitment to later enroll in the adult armed forces, similar to the scouts and guides organisations).

Introduce or expand military sponsorship of university places for intended officers, complete with the pilot license program for potential pilots, in the manner many western armed forces use - let those undergraduates be seen in the student body as leadership role models. And so on.

Reform through positive example, by various groups, throughout the schooling years can reduce the brawling, but will never exterminate it as there will always be the rebels. School gangs are often (not always) a symptom of bored minds, which can also be addressed with sufficient non-curricular activity and hobby clubs or groups within the educational system. This of course requires school, college, and university managers to stop treating their institutions as a business, and begin managing them as a community facility.

Somehow, I just don't see the Thai adult psyche ever allowing that to happen.

Foggy

[mccw]

And you wonder why the South wishes to break away. Because Bangkok views them as a punishment for the scum they can’t control. Sad and Stupid.

the reason u give has nothing to do with why some in the south have turned to murderous mahem.

Send these violent kids down there is a great idea; let them see the differring mindless violence can turn in to if escalated out of control and make them feel grateful for have oppertunity of education in peacefull surroundings. Maybe they could help out in the schools down there and shock to see how lucky they really are and put in perspective how trivial their inter colledge brawling is.

Should send the idiot reds down there aswell!

[Pib]

Why does the top/federal government (i.e., PM, Cabinet, etc) have to be involved in solving so many problems--problems that are many times "local" in nature. Seems the Thai people & local governments expect the top/federal govt to work and solve most problems. Too bad there is not more initiative/capability at the local levels to work and solve problems.

Edited September 9, 2010 by Pib

[hammered]

No short cuts on this one. The stupid thing is that Thailand needs technically trained workers and the real positive would be for this to be recognized as a qualification and career route equal to a university one in at least value to the country rather than a second rate way of getting educated for those too stupid to enter university. If you start being labelled as a failure and an outcast you will increasingly act like one.

The technical schools and those who teach in them should also look to themselves. The government versions are too often filled with those sitting on a safe government job and not giving a toss about the students and teaching decades outdated things while the private ones too often think about how they can screw more money out of students while employing teachers who also teach decades outdated things. The whole technical school eduation ssytem is probably worse than any other sector of Thai education.

There is nothing wrong with learnign at a techncial college and the country need people who have taken this route. Not everyone needs to have a degree. And the government should stop the better technos from renaming as universities so they can get away from the hated tag, charge more money,. pay better slaries and move from being reasonaable technos to poor quality universities. So much of this whoe issue is just another reflection of wealth gaps in society and steretyping and labelling.

You are never going to get away from delinquency compleltely but if society as a whole takes a deep look at itself and tries to do something for those dumped into these third rate institutes and labeled as violent hooligans, outsiders and failures already then it can be reduced.