Villagers protest against plan to close, merge small Nakhon Phanom school

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Villagers protest against plan to close, merge small Nakhon Phanom school
By The Nation

 

This school in Buri Ram province, Ban Khao Kradong, faces similiar problems to the one in Nakhon Phanon. Authorities are preparing to merge it with another school soon with the aim to boost educational quality.

 

NAKHON PHANOM: -- A PROJECT to merge small schools with larger ones is facing objections from teachers and village residents.

 

Village leaders and residents from Tambon Chaiburi in Nakhon Phanom’s Tha Uthen district jointly submitted a petition against the small-school merger project at Nakhon Phanom City Hall.

Chaiburi Administrative Organisation member Banjong Saensorn said he had received a letter from Ban Na Nong Bok School director Pranee Taoklang inviting the Basic Education Commission, community leaders and students’ parents to participate in a meeting to discuss the policy to manage small schools.

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30298768

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2016-10-31

[Kasset Tak]

I don't understand how people are thinking?!

I have been at many schools with 20-50 pupils spread from kindergarten to pratom 6. For a school with 23 students they had a workforce of 8 people: 4 teachers, 1 director, 1 secretary/help teacher, 1 ground keeper and 1 woman cooking for the children.
I can understand the small schools that are located in remote places like in the mountains but this school I'm talking about is located 4km from a school with over 200 students and less than 2km from another school with less than 30 pupils so that's just pure waste of resources!

[bokningar]

8 minutes ago, Kasset Tak said:

I don't understand how people are thinking?!

I'm not sure thinking was a big part of it. 

But the same thing happen in many western countries.

Parents want to keep small schools no mater what.  

[impulse]

10 minutes ago, bokningar said:

I'm not sure thinking was a big part of it. 

But the same thing happen in many western countries.

Parents want to keep small schools no mater what.  

 

Small class sizes for individual attention, but not small schools.  Besides missing put on the $$$ economies of scale, small schools can't come close to offering any variety for kids with special skills or special needs.

 

Senior year in High School, I went from a school of 4500 to one of 1200 students and the class selection available was abysmal.  I can't imagine how bad it is for kids in a school of 100 or less.

[fdimike]

I'm a volunteer English teacher in the NE and have helped many Thai teachers with their English language classes.  I can tell you first hand that it's not the size of the school or the number of "teachers".  It's the quality of the teachers that matters most and that's what is really missing.  You may have 1 or 2 in ten who really want to teach while the others prefer to do as little as possible.

[Johpa]

13 hours ago, impulse said:

Small class sizes for individual attention, but not small schools.  Besides missing put on the $$$ economies of scale, small schools can't come close to offering any variety for kids with special skills or special needs.

 

Problem is that economies of scale are in the government's interest, not the villagers. They closed our local village elementary school years ago.  Now the kids have a 45 minute ride each way and although the transportation is subsidized, they are asked to pay a small part of the costs.  The local school's teachers got to know the local people and could cater to some special needs for some, at least better than the current larger school where there is no connection to the local villagers and the teachers are scarcely known.  But honestly Thailand is at the opposite end of the continuum from the US in that they do not cater well to special needs or gifted students where as in the US they often spend too much, to the detriment of the larger student population.