Education Ministry To Request Huge Budget Hike

[webfact]

Education Ministry to request huge budget hike

By Supinda Na Mahachai

The Nation

The Education Ministry will ask for more than Bt550 billion for its annual budget in 2012, more than 40 per cent up on this fiscal year's budget.

After the Cabinet set next year's annual budget at Bt2.2 trillion, Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat said yesterday that his ministry would ask for Bt551,015 million.

The ministry will also ask for Bt4.1 billion in "related funds". This money will go into the Teacher and Educational Personnel Development Fund, the Technology for Education Fund and the establishment of the Chulabhon Rajawittayalai School network of regional science schools. The funds will also support the ongoing Riandee 15 Pi ("Study Well for 15 Years) project, which provides textbooks to schoolchildren.

"The Education Ministry has five main agencies and this year the budget was already almost Bt400 billion," said Chinnaworn. "I want the main agencies to work with the Budget Bureau on setting the budget, the budget spending procedure and assessing the effectiveness of budget spending."

Chinnaworn said that in the past the Education Ministry had handled a rather large budget of Bt400 billion to Bt500 billion. Most of the funds went on regular expenditure including teachers' salaries and allowances while the money for investment was less than 20 per cent.

The minister said he wanted the public to be confident the ministry would use the money to improve the quality of education with transparency and good governance.

-- The Nation 2011-01-27

[SouthernMan3]

VERY GOOD !

Thai teachers deserve to be paid more.

Any money toward education in any country is a good thing.

[Losangels]

Yep, giving themselves big fat raises should help education standards here.

[Ijustwannateach]

Of course raises will not do much to improve the performance of the old fossil crew, but it might do quite a lot towards making it more likely that more talented and skilled young Thai citizens will choose to become teachers. At the moment, it's not really enough to help someone provide for a family and make a living without some other supplementation.

[Foggy Bottom]

Of course raises will not do much to improve the performance of the old fossil crew, but it might do quite a lot towards making it more likely that more talented and skilled young Thai citizens will choose to become teachers. At the moment, it's not really enough to help someone provide for a family and make a living without some other supplementation.

You have got to be joking?

Ten years ago, working at Chiang Mai University, All the staff trooped into the on campus bank to cash their pay checks on the last day of every month. Farang teachers teaching 7 or 8 classes a week at 3 hours per class per week, were picking up salaries under 20K Baht, with no holiday or sickness benefits, no pensions, no involvement in field trips and so on, and they had to pay their own work permits and visas.

Thai teachers on the other hand, with full holiday pay, sickness benefits and pensions were swanning in, jumping the queue and cashing cheques for 80 to 90,000 and teaching only three class sections per week. "Dual pricing" at its worst - in demonstrating slave labour pay rates for foreigners.

In the English Department, the department accountant bought a Jeep Cherokee cash for almost 6 million baht despite supposedly being on a salary under 30,000. The following semester, the faculty remembered that four years previously a 20% pay rise for the 30 or so farang teachers had been approved - naturally they did not back date the discrepancy, everyone believed the "forgotten" pay rise had paid for that Jeep.

Thai teachers do not need pay rises - they need compulsory integrity & morals lessons every week, added to intensive teacher training and attitude updating every time the students have a holiday between semesters - eventually, like in 30 years from now, things might begin improving.

[SOTIRIOS]

With all due respect

that is insane. It is an insane amount of money and after having taught in all types of schools, in various regions, I just have to ask:

WHERE IS ALL THAT MONEY GOING???

Decrepit and dilapidated ...second rate....third rate....substandard...out of date...everywhere you turn

One would think they were underfunded...18 billion dollars???.....300 million dollars per province???

WHERE HAS ALL THE MONEY BEEN GOING ALL THESE YEARS??? HAVE YOU SEEN ANY AMELIORATION IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM???

You tell me

[Firelily]

Foggy Bottom, I have no idea what's going on in universities, I only know that Thai teachers who teach classes of 40-50 kids to read and write and take care of them 9 hours a day in rural government schools earn 6000 baht or less a month.

[khaowong1]

Yep, giving themselves big fat raises should help education standards here.

This what I was thinking. Either that or his wife is a teacher.

[khaowong1]

With all due respect

that is insane. It is an insane amount of money and after having taught in all types of schools, in various regions, I just have to ask:

WHERE IS ALL THAT MONEY GOING???

Decrepit and dilapidated ...second rate....third rate....substandard...out of date...everywhere you turn

One would think they were underfunded...18 billion dollars???.....300 million dollars per province???

WHERE HAS ALL THE MONEY BEEN GOING ALL THESE YEARS??? HAVE YOU SEEN ANY AMELIORATION IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM???

You tell me

I don't know where you live but in the area where I live, the head honcho drives a Mercedes.

[khaowong1]

Of course raises will not do much to improve the performance of the old fossil crew, but it might do quite a lot towards making it more likely that more talented and skilled young Thai citizens will choose to become teachers. At the moment, it's not really enough to help someone provide for a family and make a living without some other supplementation.

You have got to be joking?

Ten years ago, working at Chiang Mai University, All the staff trooped into the on campus bank to cash their pay checks on the last day of every month. Farang teachers teaching 7 or 8 classes a week at 3 hours per class per week, were picking up salaries under 20K Baht, with no holiday or sickness benefits, no pensions, no involvement in field trips and so on, and they had to pay their own work permits and visas.

Thai teachers on the other hand, with full holiday pay, sickness benefits and pensions were swanning in, jumping the queue and cashing cheques for 80 to 90,000 and teaching only three class sections per week. "Dual pricing" at its worst - in demonstrating slave labour pay rates for foreigners.

In the English Department, the department accountant bought a Jeep Cherokee cash for almost 6 million baht despite supposedly being on a salary under 30,000. The following semester, the faculty remembered that four years previously a 20% pay rise for the 30 or so farang teachers had been approved - naturally they did not back date the discrepancy, everyone believed the "forgotten" pay rise had paid for that Jeep.

Thai teachers do not need pay rises - they need compulsory integrity & morals lessons every week, added to intensive teacher training and attitude updating every time the students have a holiday between semesters - eventually, like in 30 years from now, things might begin improving.

Thanks Foggy Bottom. I see this among Thai teachers a lot. Jeeps, Mercedes, Lexus etc. on salaries of 20,000 to 30,000 a month. They must be really great at saving a baht.

[SICHONSTEVE]

Foggy Bottom, I have no idea what's going on in universities, I only know that Thai teachers who teach classes of 40-50 kids to read and write and take care of them 9 hours a day in rural government schools earn 6000 baht or less a month.

I cannot believe these numbers unless you are referring to Thai teachers in private kindergarten schools in rural areas where admittedly they do sometimes get as low as 4,000 Baht/month. My wife and I are such school powners and we pay what is considered to be a reasonable salary of 6,000 baht/month in a quiet town area in Sichon, Nakhonsithammarat. Out of all similar (private) schools in the area we are probably the top payers. Don't forget, the cost of living is way, way, lower here and they all have and own their houses and live in the local area. About 95% travel on motorcycles and this salary far exceeds the pay of most workers who don't work for the government or some large companies. So it is not as bad as you make out it is. Our school has been open for less than 2 years and we hope to increase the teacher salaries as our number intake increases accordingly. One other thing, private schools do not get all of the monies granted to Government schools (although this is improving at a rate) under Abhisit's commendable government and their recent education initiatives designed to make private schooling less costly for the parents with free uniforms, pencils and books, milk, and food for the under-nourished meaning that we can charge them lower fees and pass on in full these government handouts.

[Ijustwannateach]

Chiang Mai University and their lecturers and academic professors (not teachers) are in a much different boat than normal school teachers in public schools. I shouldn't even have to point that out.