Pupils At Small Schools To Use Facilities At Other Sites: O B E C

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EDUCATION
Pupils at small schools to use facilities at other sites: OBEC
SUPINDA NA MAHACHAI,
TANPISIT LERDBAMRUNGCHAI
THE NATION



BANGKOK: -- The Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) bowed to public pressure yesterday, with Obec secretary-general Chinnapat Bhumirat announcing no small schools would be closed this academic year. Instead, pupils will be moved between 1,000 schools to get more efficient use of facilities.

Education Minister Phongthep Thepkanchana has ordered a new joint committee, to be chaired by former deputy education minister Sirikorn Maneerin, with Chinnapat as deputy, to gather opinions on and find solutions for small and alternative schools, before reporting back to the ministry.

Chinnapat met yesterday with representatives of some 200 parents and students who were rallying under the banner of the Association for Thai Alternative Education Council and the Community School Network outside the Education Ministry. Upset at news some directors of schools with less than 60 pupils had been removed from their posts by educational zone offices, the group called for a halt to the policy of closing and merging small schools, pending proper consultation between education authorities and the public.

Chinnapat said that 178 of the 182 primary education zones outside Bangkok had submitted plans to Obec to develop some 3,500 schools with less than 60 pupils. These would be condensed into a master plan for small-school development to be proposed to the ministry today. No small schools would be closed down, apart from schools that had no fresh intake of students in three primary education zones. The closed schools' facilities would be used to create nurseries or non-formal education centres, he said.

Other schools, Chinnapat said, would be divided into two groups: 2,200 small schools, including 300 located in "special and necessary" areas such as islands, would undergo intensive learning-teaching development, while the other 1,000 would rotate students between their schools.

Chatchawal Thongdeelert, head of the Association for Thai Alternative Education Council, said its five seminars in March and May found people want the ministry to reduce its limits on public schools and promote participation by all in education management while the ministry adopts a role of supervising and following-up. They wanted curricula and assessments to be flexible and suited to social context and learners' differences and an institute for education management and development according to article 12 of the National Education Act.

Resident Supat Khanthom from Roi Et's Pathumrat district said she was worried that Ban Som Hong School, which had 49 students and three teachers, where her youngest child attends kindergarten, would be closed because the school director was removed. "If I have to send my kid to a city school, I'll have to pay Bt1,000 in transport costs a month. We are farmers. If this school near our home is closed, we'll be affected," she said.

Chiang Mai's education development for children and youth project member Boonpravee Thaweepanarat said if schools in mountains were closed villagers wouldn't send their kids to city schools because they couldn't afford transport expenses. So kids would suffer a lack of access to education, which would lead to problems such as drugs and human trafficking. She called for education assessment to be flexible and include cultural and vocational skills from the community's participation in education management.


-- The Nation 2013-05-31

[Robby nz]

If the directors of schools have been removed who is doing their job then?

The teachers I suppose, less time for teaching, great way to improve education.

Give the teachers more paperwork to do.