Russia running out of soldiers

[webfact]

Cabinet endorses proposed taxation of tutoring schools

BANGKOK, 10 December 2014 (NNT) – The Cabinet has endorsed the proposed taxation of tutoring schools, suggested by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), and assigned the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance to devise a taxation structure for the purpose within 30 days.

Major General Sansern Kaewkamnerd, deputy spokesperson to the Prime Minister's Office, announced the resolution of the Cabinet after its meeting on Tuesday. He said the Cabinet agreed to the proposal by the NACC to tax tutoring schools, as the Cabinet viewed that these businesses required little investment but generate extremely high income.

The Cabinet also viewed that there are legal loopholes that hinder the collection of tax from these establishments. According to Maj. Gen. Sansern, there were some points within the proposal made by the NACC in 2011 that needed to be adjusted and updated, and the Ministry of Education has been tasked with the required updates.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance has been told to adjust its regulations to accommodate the adjustments to be made by the Education Ministry.

Maj. Gen. Sansern also revealed that during Tuesday's cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha voiced his objection to a proposed ban on the sale of alcohol during the New Year's holiday period. The prime minister reasoned that the proposal likely cannot be implemented in practice, and might draw criticism for being a form of trade barrier.


-- NNT 2014-12-10

[scorecard]

Major General Sansern Kaewkamnerd, deputy spokesperson to the Prime Minister's Office, announced the resolution of the Cabinet after its meeting on Tuesday. He said the Cabinet agreed to the proposal by the NACC to tax tutoring schools, as the Cabinet viewed that these businesses required little investment but generate extremely high income.

Not only little investment and high income.

Also many of these schools employ people with little qualifications.

Often the teaching staff are moonlighting teachers from the education ministry who should be in their classrooms or

should be providing better education in the normal classroom so that students have no need to attend tutor schools.

Often there is no real structure in the 'lessons'

Often there is no quality or valuable outcome.

They have no accreditation and perhaps even worse, they are not required to have accreditation.

IMHO there is perhaps one legitimate situation; my Thai granddaughter loves maths and she does well but she discovered

a 'tutor' school which focused on practice and she asked if she could go.

Why? Because she loves maths and wanted to get more practice.

She attends and for her age she really is fast and 99% of the time correct at anything I put in front of her.

Her teacher has mentioned privately that she doesn't need to attend, but she does because she wants to

and I see there is value..

The teachers do have training and the fees are quite small.

In this case if the fees go up a bit to cover tax I don't mind.

Edited December 10, 2014 by scorecard

[siampolee]

Wonder whether the teacher agencies will fall into this net?

Going to be interesting to see how they will react if they are included, also just what the results might be regarding staff quality and salaries paid.

[jaltsc]

"Maj. Gen. Sansern also revealed that during Tuesday's cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha voiced his objection to a proposed ban on the sale of alcohol during the New Year's holiday period. The prime minister reasoned that the proposal likely cannot be implemented in practice, and might draw criticism for being a form of trade barrier."

Perhaps he should focus on improving the government's ability to enforce the laws instead of ignoring them due to its incompetency. Unless of course, there is a benefit to allowing certain laws and regulations to go unenforced.

Edited December 10, 2014 by jaltsc

[Rumble]

Oh! But they do deduct tax monies from the Tutors, but they never pay it in, they pocket the money. besides that most of them keep two sets of books one is the original that is well hidden and the other is the false one to show the authorities.

Edited December 10, 2014 by Rumble

[Ajahnski]

Where to start on this one?

First, there are many farang that run tutoring schools. I know a couple that opened theirs b/c they needed to make a living after they fled the Thai schools. Their first choice wasn't to run a tutoring school, but the school system here is so insane that it's often impossible to teach. However, since there are a lot of farang that run them, they make easy targets . . .

Second, the tutoring schools are needed. My wife has a master's in agriculture, and is fluent in English. The Thai English teachers in our small town don't speak any English. They just go into class, tell the kids which pages to do, and give them credit for anything written down. My wife routinely corrects the errors missed by the 'regular' teacher.

Third, the Ministry wants tutoring schools to be run by licensed teachers, but their licensing test is irrational. My wife wasn't able to pass all the sections of the exam, so her school is 'not legal', even though she gives better instruction than the regular teachers. (She's planning on taking a class so she can pass the exam.) I also have a coworker (farang) who took a special class and eventually got his teacher's license. He said the material and the exam are unrelated to anything to do with teaching. There was even a large section on Freudian psychology on the exam, which is completely useless for anything other than comedy skits.

If the Ministry of Ed wants better teaching, then start by fixing the schools. Get rid of the 'no fail' policy along with all the other Thaksin 'reforms'. Let the farang teachers give detentions for misbehaving students so that the rooms resembles classes instead of zoos. (Even my dept director admitted that the zoo analogy was not inappropriate.) Until then, I wouldn't trust the Ministry of Ed to water a plant.

(Sorry, I got on a bit of a rant there. My frustration at not being allowed to teach at the school where I work is getting to me.)