OBEC planning fee to improve state school

By SUPINDA NA MAHACHAI

THE NATION

The Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) wants to impose a new service fee and set up incentives that encourage parents to raise funds for school improvement.

Obec secretary-general Chinnapat Bhumirat said yesterday that after schools were banned from collecting donations during the period when they recruit students or taking money in exchange for student places, the amount of donations made to schools dropped greatly.

This was especially true for large schools where state funds were only enough to cover basic expenses - and were not enough to develop to a higher standard. So Obec wanted to find ways to persuade parents to raise funds for school development.

It plans to announce an Education Ministry regulation soon to collect a service fee at Obec-supervised schools so they have enough money to undertake improvements.

The Obec Office of Policy and Planning had been asked to gather opinions about fund-raising as well as recruiting students for Mathayom 1 and 4 using O-Net (Ordinary National Educational Test) scores, he said.

He affirmed that Obec would maintain the principle of prohibiting donations while students are recruited and said fund-raising must not be a condition for recruitment.

The 22 items that schools cannot collect money from parents for because the state already pays for them include tuition fees, textbooks, uniforms, field trips, academic activity expenses, scout activity costs, student identity cards, academic result reports, |etc.

Schools that provide extracurricular activities to promote and develop education quality can ask for voluntary donations from parents - provided their requests are approved by Obec and announced in advance to parents and students.

Eligible activities include the English Programme (EP) and Mini-English Programme (MEP).

-- The Nation 2011-06-28

strange, my kids' school cost us about 50.000 baht per year, but then it is not public, its semi private ? (sarasas)

Sarasas schools are privately owned.

No such thing as free education in thailand no matter what the gov says, everyone I know gets hit with big fees every semester in public schools. The sooner thailand abolishes about 95 % of these so-called ep, mep, iep blah blah blah programs the better, most are nothing but cash generators for school admin to piss away. English should be made an elective subject, every program I have taught in here I am lucky if 10% of the class has any interest in learning english, most students are forced to attend and will never use english again after leaving the classroom. Billions of baht a year spent on english language instruction and pattaya bar girls speak better english than a thai student with 12 years of english lessons.

A few will have to learn English to dub the movies and shows in English for the masses that don't learn English and who are ill-equipped for anything but menial and manual labor.

No such thing as free education in thailand no matter what the gov says, everyone I know gets hit with big fees every semester in public schools. The sooner thailand abolishes about 95 % of these so-called ep, mep, iep blah blah blah programs the better, most are nothing but cash generators for school admin to piss away. English should be made an elective subject, every program I have taught in here I am lucky if 10% of the class has any interest in learning english, most students are forced to attend and will never use english again after leaving the classroom.

Sadly, I have to agree. I know of upcountry schools, where poor kids have to shell out lots of money for field trips, uniforms, etc., which are officially free. Then again, Thai teachers need donations.

As for learning English; I've worked in all kinds of schools over the years, and agree that at least 4 out of five kids are not interested to study English, particularly at high school level. The ones who need English later at university usually brush up their language skills at that time.

It's a little hard to 'brush up' on a skill if you never had the skill in the first place.

Our school is a Thai government school not far from Prakanong and they still charge the parents 70,000THB per year for M.E.P. and 50,000 for regular program.

Our school is a Thai government school not far from Prakanong and they still charge the parents 70,000THB per year for M.E.P.

I'm not surprised at this, about 70,000 per year is about average for an EP.

. and 50,000 for regular program.

I'm very surprised at this! What are you paying for? Field Trips & Uniforms?

This is the first time I have ever heard about free uniforms.