Kids should be allowed to stay at school of their

Commenting on a hunger strike staged in front of Government House by some former Bodindecha (Sing Singhaseni) School students stripped of the right to continue studying in Mathayom 4 there, Visa said she didn’t believe the protest was politically motivated. She did not believe any students would stage another hunger strike in future.
Saying children were entitled to an education, particularly basic education, be it in the academic or vocational stream, Visa said those wishing to study at the same school from Mathayom 1 through 6 should be allowed to do so. Leaving school halfway through would cost them opportunities and force them to find a new place to study, she said.
However, if schools require students to take exams to enter Mathayom 4, the exams should measure students’ abilities, in order to prevent inequality, she said. She urged the Education Ministry to develop its schools to have the same standards. The National Human Rights Commission, grasping the importance of this issue, would host a discussion between related parties to find common solutions, she said.
Saying that many kids preferred the academic stream over vocational education because they thought it would give them a better chance at a career and life security, she said vocational students could also obtain bachelor’s degrees and get good jobs, so parents and kids should adjust their thinking.
Visa also urged the private sector to set up a fund to grant scholarships to children who had to drop out of school for financial reasons, saying that government funds to assist children came with conditions attached that kept some kids from being able to access them.
Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) secretarygeneral Chinnapat Bhumirat yesterday said a solution had been devised by a committee to find remedial measures for former Bodindecha students under which 12 schools under the Bangkok Education Service Area Office 2 would accept these students. He said that should alleviate the problem, as the 12 schools still had seats available and the suggestion did break any rules.
Chinnapat said that at Bodindecha, 30 Mathayom 4 students gave up their right to a place, so the school replaced them with students on the waiting list. He said the rule remained that, if there were vacancies, they must be filled starting with students at the top of the waiting list, and that was why not all the protesting students were taken back. He said the Bodindecha problem should be solved today(May 25), just in time for the school opening on Monday.
In future, Obec would set two rules for student recruitment: firstly, they would let more students continue on to Mathayom 4 at their old schools; and secondly, entrance exams for new students remained necessary to assure quality education, he said.
Meanwhile, Narong Niyomrat, a leading member of the Bodindecha protesters, said the hunger strike wouldn’t resume even if the school does not take back all the students, as they would see the results of the committee’s solution before deciding their next move. Bodindecha’s president for student recruitment, Preecha Jitrasingh, said the school replaced the 30 seats, after new students gave up their rights, with those in the waiting list. Among them was one