When free is not free
Wai Kru ceremony at Kanchanapisek School in the northeastern province of Chaiyaphum.
Thailand 15-year free public school system is not universally free. The Ministry of Education does allow schools to collect additional fees under certain conditions.
First, the fees are supposed to be suitable and approved by the school’s committee. Secondly, the school is also required to seek the consent of students and parents.
Students and parents from Kanchanapisek School in the northeastern province of Chaiyaphum are complaining that these conditions were clearly not met in the school’s massive fee increase this year.
The school is under fire for increasing its fees by up to 65% — in ‘‘flagrant disregard for the government’s 15-year free education scheme’’, a group representing students say.
About 10 students and parents from Kanchanapisek School yesterday lodged a complaint with Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat calling on him to investigate the school for allegedly collecting high tuition fees from both boarding and non-resident students.
They claimed the tuition fee had increased by between 33% and 65% without their consent. New Mathayom Suksa 1 (Grade 7) students are suffering the most, paying 42,000 baht a year in tuition fees.
The school has cited higher expenses from setting up IT rooms and hiring foreign teachers to justify the increases. Each student has to pay 2,500 baht to use IT services and another 500 baht to be taught by foreign teachers.
However, the school had not provided enough computers for all students, a student representative said. And no foreign teachers had been hired.
The students and parents also complained that the school had failed to hand out free textbooks provided by the government to students.
They also accused it of providing students with low-quality lunches with rotten fruit. Most school buildings were dilapidated, they said.The school’s executives could not be reached for comment yesterday.Adapted from a story in today's Bangkok Post by Sirikul Bunnag.
universally – including all situations; involving or affecting everyone โดยทั่วไป
fee – an amount of money that you pay to be allowed to do something ค่าธรรมเนียม
condition – something that must be done before another thing can happen เงื่อนไข
suitable – acceptable or right for someone or something เหมาะสม
consent – to give permission to do something ยอมให้ทำ, อนุญาต
massive - very large in size, amount or numberใหญ่โต
under fire – being criticised strongly กำลังเป็นที่วิพากษ์วิจารณ์, กำลังโดนโจมตี
flagrant – done in an obvious way that shows you do not care if you break rules or offend people ที่ปรากฏชัด, ชัดๆ, ที่เห็นได้ชัด
disregard – not respecting something or considering it important ความไม่เอาใจใส่, ความเฉยเมย, ความเพิกเฉย
Government should support studies of Thai children than this. Yue and should help a mobile one.
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