"Wat Makutkasat School deputy director Alongkorn Niyakij said he believed the old regulation made it easier to identify students and hence protected them, especially schoolgirls, from sex-related crimes. As their hairstyles marked them out as minors, their attackers would think twice as they face more severe punishment."

This reminds me of a political cartoon I recently saw: Two female college students are in their dorm room discussing courses they want to take next term. One says, "Next year I'm thinking of taking 'How to Avoid Rape.' But the prerequisite courses are 'How to Dress,' 'How to Behave,' and 'How to Please Everyone.'"

Wouldn't it be a better plan to require men and boys to take a course in 'How to Respect Women?'

Does this now mean there'll be hordes of pre-teen boys preening themselves endlessly in motorsai mirrors or restrooms ,just like their older brothers ???

Probably.

Saying that his school would observe the new regulations, Suankularb Wittayalai School director Cherdsak Supasopon said the old hair limits were useful in keeping the students disciplined and focused on their studies.

Don't worry, there still is the cane to keep them disciplined .

Teacher's association president Thinnakorn Namboonjit said, following the old regulations kept children disciplined and taught them to respect rules, so they could grow up to become good citizens. He said that if the control on hair lengths was only seen as a violation of rights, then the authorities might as well let youngsters do everything freely and forget about discipline.

What discipline is he talking about?? I guess he has not been in a Thai classroom lately because with most of the students there is not much discipline at all.

when i used to live in phon phisai near nong khai we had a shop next to the local school

me and the mrs would sit outside at end of school time , just to watch and see how many

had big lumps of hair shaved out of the head by teachers so it would need propper cutting by the

parent when they got home . as you can see theres not much to do in phon phisai .

This barbaric practice of teachers shaving lumps of hair off the boys heads is a common thing in the schools around where I live. My wifes 14 year old nephew was attacked in this way last year, then a couple of months later a five year (Yes 5 years old) nephew had the same done. In both cases the areas the hair was cut (more like shaved)was near the crown meant the the remainder of the hair had to be completely shaven off. No warnings were given the day before to tell them they had to have their hair cut, they were just taken to the front of the class so that the teacher could attack them in front of their classmates. In the Uk if a teacher did something like this, assault, they would end up in court and lose their job. Here it seems teachers like to attack their students and enjoy the power it gives them and the humilation they bring to the children supposedly in their care.

Yes this is all part of their training so when they grow up they will obey those in authority with no questions asked!

In the Uk if a teacher did something like this, assault, they would end up in court and lose their job.

Not the direction things should be going, or you end up with a situation where teachers have ZERO authority like in the U.S., and apparently the U.K.

I'm all for uniforms and standardized haircuts, let them develop some good habits while they are young and impressionable; they'll have the rest of their lives to **** off if they so choose to do so.

Teachers don't need this kind of "authority" where the education system functions and is not exclusively aiming at disciplining children!

This is so true I taught in Thailand for 3 years and Thai students are not very disciplined at all. Now I teach in China the students here wear what clothes they want and their hair how ever they want. Bu they are extremely disciplined students especially compared to Thais. Also they really respect teachers here unlike in Thailand where they just give lip service saying how much they respect teachers it is BS as they say actions speak louder then words!

Thomash hits the nail on the head.

When will the majority in this country stop focusing on useless externals and finally acknowledge that it is the internals that matter? There is absolutely no point in upholding hair length discipline, well, unless you are trying to combat flea epidemics or something.

Discipline as such is important, I'd agree that the pendulum has swung too far away from discipline in most Western countries with detrimental results to effective learning and cooperation - but there are so many other skillful ways that discipline can be developed other than hair length control and uniforms.

Hair, no hair, short hair, long hair, cropped hair. What about colourful hair?

BTW as some have said here, all of these regulations distract from the real role of schools: education

Which reminds me. A bit more than two months before end-of-the-year exams. All P1 kids have a workable tabletPC by now, I guess?

The educators spend too much time on enforcing hair length and not enough time educating. Maybe they will spend more time teaching instead of whacking hair. But there still should be some regulation about hair length, but I suppose that can vary at the district level depending on the needs of the students (or teachers).

In countries where hair length is not severely regulated by school authorities, is it really an issue at all? What best governs the length of hair is contemporary fashion and peer pressure. Given the Thai mentality of not wanting to stand out from the group, it's unlikely that many students would veer too far from what would be an acceptable hair length. And even if they did, it would or should not affect anyone's education.

I agree that the teachers should spend their energy teaching. If there was actual instruction in the classroom, there'd be less time (and less need) for discipline. The quality of Thailand's primary schools ranks 85th in the world, and for high schools it's 77th*; there's lots of room for improvement.

*The 2011-2012 Global Competitiveness Report, page 345. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GCR_Report_2011-12.pdf

And today, National Children's Day, Google is featuring the day on their search page with the phrase: "Uphold Discipline, Enhance Knowledge, and Bring Thailand Towards ASEAN."

Congratulation for everybody ka.

To have different rules for students of state and private schools is DISCRIMINATION.

To have different rules for boys and girls is SEXUAL DISCRIMINATION.

Surely riding this country of any kind of DISCRIMINATION can only be a good thing.

Does this now mean there'll be hordes of pre-teen boys preening themselves endlessly in motorsai mirrors or restrooms ,just like their older brothers ???

In English we call them "motorbikes" or "motorcycles".