Guest MonkeySee Posted March 19, 2009 Posted March 19, 2009 A programme of 15-years free education was put into action on Wednesday, with the government distributing 18 billion baht among more than 40,000 local schools throughout the country. Education Minister Jurin Laksanavisit presided over transfer of a total of 18.257 billion baht to public and private schools nationwide in a ceremony at Bangkok's Sri Ayudhya school. "The government and the Education Ministry are confident that our children and our youth will have better access to education through the launch of this programme," he said. "It will help alleviate the financial burden carried by parents in millions of families, and at the same time it will help stimulate the economy. The minister said the money would benefit students from kindergarten to high school, including vocational education inside and outside the formal education system. About 11.8 million students would gain access to free education. The policy would cover fees for education, books, education tools, student uniforms and recreational activities, Mr Jurin said. "Today is the first day of the free education programme. From today onwards, schools will invite parents and students to apply for money to spend on uniforms and school equipment," he said. Schools would buy books for their students before the next semester begins in May. The government supports 70% of tuition costs, and parents pay the rest. About 60,000 students would not be eligible for the money, he said. The ministry would divert this money to assist disadvantaged students in remote areas. By: BangkokPost.com Published: 18/03/2009 at 04:33 PM http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/1378...ucation-for-all Quote
Bob Posted March 19, 2009 Posted March 19, 2009 The government supports 70% of tuition costs, and parents pay the rest. While maybe better than what's occurred before, parents having to pay 30% seems to make the the word "free" inapplicable. I've understood that school is actually fairly free of costs through what we would call elementary school (through middle school but before high school). I've been told that after that age, there are costs (for uniforms, books, class trips, etc.) that some poor families cannot afford and that is why many of their kids leave school then and join the family in the rice farming or whatever on a full-time basis [it could also be argued that many of those rural poor want the kids back in the fields full-time at that age and perhaps that desire (versus the cost) may be the primary factor for stopping their children's formal education at that age)]. The Thai constution (both the old and the latest versions) provided quite clearly that free education must be provided through high school. That actually hasn't been the case but any program (like the one discussed in this article) is surely a step in the right direction. For Thailand to compete with China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and other surrounding countries, they absolutely need to boost the number of people receiving at least a high school education. They also need to radically alter the manner and quality of education but that's a somewhat separate issue. Quote
