More Budget for Educational Development Needed: EC

(28-05-2013)

The Chairman of Educational Commission (EC) Mr. Prakob Rattanpan attended a meeting and gave an official visit to educational organizations to obtain information and discuss with the Permanent Secretary of Education Mrs. Panita Kamphu Na Ayutthaya and senior officers of the Ministry of Education.

After the meeting, Mr. Prakob said that results from discussion with executives from Office of the Non Formal and Informal Education, Office of the Teachers and Educational Personnel and Office of the Private Education Commission were impressive. He also asked about increasing salary of private school teachers of bachelor degrees to 15,000 Baht and found that nothing was done. So, the teachers should get this benefit as soon as possible. In terms of budget for educational development that has been cut or reduced recently, Mr. Prakob said it is much needed to promote equal educational opportunity.


Mrs. Panita added that one of the projects whose budget was cut or reduced was the Genius Book House organized by ONFIE. The proposal was for funding amounting to 900 million baht but, since only 450 million baht was awarded, only 50% of the local communities in Thailand will benefit. Moreover, OPEC needs more money to pay for increased salaries for private school teachers because it is now using its budget for 2013 which is insufficient. More finance is needed for 2014. Furthermore, the project for developing an ICT infrastructure in southern Thailand for which the additional budget of 200 million baht was cut although it is considered to be very useful to solve problems with the basic infrastructure of ICT in the three provinces of the country’s southern border.