Some 2,800 small schools face merger
Some 2,800 small schools with fewer than 40 students each are to be merged , the chairman of the Basic Education Commission said.
However, Assoc Prof Dr Ekkachai Kisukphan added that not all 18,000 small schools under the Office of Basic Education Commission that are located near one another would be merged.
Ekkachai said the OBEC instead wanted to merge small schools each with fewer than 40 students and close to each other.
Ekkachai said the goal of the merger was to allow newly merged schools to teachers for all classrooms as well as sufficient teaching materials and adequate buildings.
He said the merger would improve the quality of education and the OBEC would consider the merger case by case instead of using the same criteria nationwide. For example, schools on islands and on mountaintops would be exempt.
Ekkachai said the merger would be carried out gradually starting from this year.
To address worries that students might find it hard to travel to school after the merger, the OBEC would cooperate with the local administrations to provide subsidies for travel costs.
He said the distance would also be taken into account. New schools formed under after merger would not be too far and travel time must not be longer than half an hour, Ekkachai added.
He said the OBEC would also consider measures to compensate school directors, who would lose their allowance for the posts and are thus opposed to the merger.
The OBEC has surveyed and found that there are 14,796 schools nationwide with fewer than 120 students and 2,845 schools with fewer than 40. There are also 123 other schools in remote areas, including on mountaintops and small islands.
Meanwhile, Sumit Suwan, deputy dean of the Faculty of Education of Kasetsart University, said he agreed with the merger of small schools because a lower birth rate has meant fewer students but the number of schools has not changed.
He said small schools within a radius of two or three kilometres should be merged.
