Online flak over school closures
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The criticism started almost as soon as Education Minister Phongthep Thepkanjana announced the government's policy to close small schools and merge them with bigger ones on Wednesday.
A lot of Facebook users shared the following message: “No need to close tens of thousand schools to save the budget. Dissolving your party would save a lot more.”
A picture from an unknown source was also widely shared, with the message: “There is Bt2-trillion in loans to build high-speed trains, but no money to build education!!”
Jirayu Ekkul launched a petition at www.change.org/smallschool to oppose the school closures, with the message: “Please give us space for education in communities. I love my school.”
The petition had won 2,000 signatures by press time.
The Tee Nee Prakonchai Page clearly stated its opposition to school closures. “Don’t deprive children from [small] communities. Tee Nee Prakonchai Page disagrees with the policy to close schools. ‘Phongthep’ ordered the closure of 14,816 small schools nationwide. (These are pictures of Prakonchai Pittayakom Sai 2. Now it is Muang Talung School.)”
The Kru Tah Fanpage said the policy was doing permanent damage to the country. It featured a picture of school students with one girl performing a wai with a message that reads, “Please don’t close my school.”
Utain Shartpinyo posted, “The government must know that education is the root of prosperity and success. We have lost ground and moved backwards for a long time. I agree that some schools deserve to be closed. But the criteria should not be the number of students; there must be better reasons.”
Further discussions could be seen on Twitter. @epinephrinerx, said they came from a family of teachers, said that such closure of schools did not begin with this government. He said he partially agreed with closures as some schools lack quality and funding them would be a waste. However, he said, the closures should be considered on a case-by-case basis. “If the community accepts it, go ahead. But if not, we need to offer quality education in communities. Moreover, the community must take responsibility for their children’s education,” he wrote.
@23041988 said: “A) You close the schools, but have you planned how difficult it would be for the children to go to school? B) We already waived the tax for first cars.”
@8527739: “This is for better education. We don’t close schools and use the land for something else.”
@iPhonnn: “People in the city don’t see how children go to schools in rural areas.”
@thetigernutch: “This is a picture of Banyod School in Nan. There are eight students and one teacher. Children here know about community forests a lot better than many adults? pic.twitter.com/3XqoDBioMbView”
A tweet from @Pookem has been re-tweeted almost 1,400 times. Part of it reads: “We have a budget for the first-car scheme … We have a budget for the first-house Scheme… We set Bt7.75 million compensation for red shirts … We don’t have a budget for schools.”
Phongthep has said that closures would only apply to schools that are of poor standard and near other, better schools, while the ministry will provide transportation for the students. It seems that he still has a lot more explaining to do.
