Parents to get choice of school tuition items

By The Nation

The Education Ministry is planning to list free items for parents to choose for their children's education during the 2012 Academic Year onward.

Education Minister Woravat Auapinyakul disclosed the plan yesterday.

The list of choices, he said, would benefit the children more than the mandatory package of free tuition, uniforms, textbooks, learning materials, and extra learning activities.

"We may list about 10 items for parents to choose because in some years, children may not need items like new uniforms," Woravat pointed out.

He said he had already instructed the Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) to survey parents' needs.

"We will prepare the list based on the survey's results," he added.

Woravat said he found it impossible for the Education Ministry to ask for well over Bt500 billion for the 2012 Fiscal Year, the total now requested by all agencies under the ministry's supervision.

"The combined budget should not be over Bt410 billion," he commented.

He said he told the Office of Higher Education Commission (Ohec) secretarygeneral Sumet Yamnoon to discuss with representatives from the various educational agencies this weekend on how to revise down the budget requests.

Woravat expected to hear the meeting results on Monday.

-- The Nation 2011-09-09

The list of choices, he said, would benefit the children more than the mandatory package of free tuition, uniforms, textbooks, learning materials, and extra learning activities.

"We may list about 10 items for parents to choose because in some years, children may not need items like new uniforms," Woravat pointed out.

What else do they need besides what's in the mandatory package? A new tablet computer, maybe?