Push to increase South teachers' danger money

Education Minister Phongthep Thepkanjana explained that if this proposal goes through, then teachers should get about Bt3,500 per month in danger money. 

Phongthep was speaking at a meeting in Pattani province with 1,500 educational personnel representing teachers’ federations and associations. The minister and his deputy, Sermsak Pongpanich, travelled to the province yesterday to listen to a briefing on the violence in the region. Before the meeting, Phongthep attended the funeral of Chatsuda Ninsuwan, a teacher at a school in Narathiwat’s Joh I Rong district, who was gunned down on Monday. 

Before Chatsuda’s killing, Nanthana Kaewchan, 51, director of a school in Pattani’s Nong Chik district, was shot dead just 100 metres from her school. Following the death of Nanthana, teachers’ associations decided to suspend classes at about 362 schools to protest against the government’s failure in handling the situation in the South.

Phongthep and his deputy are in the South after teachers demanded that they witness the reality for themselves. The minister said that security officials in the South needed to frequently review their plans so they can provide better safety for teachers. 

Also at a meeting yesterday, the teachers demanded that their colleagues whose request to be moved out of the region had been rejected be allowed to re-apply and that the ministry move Buddhist teachers out of dangerous areas. 

Meanwhile, National Security Council secretary-general Lt-General Paradorn Pattanathabutr said PM Yingluck Shinawatra would visit the South within this month.