Colleges may face closure if students involved in brawls

Prayuth floated the idea on Wednesday after six students of the Rajamangala University of Technology Uthenthawai Campus confessed to having gunned down three students of a rival institute this month in what they described as “revenge for a friend’s death”.
The university and the Pathumwan Institute of Technology are arch-rivals.
The Office of the Vocational Education Commission (Ovec), the Office of Private Education Commission (Opec) and the Office of the Higher Education Commission (Ohec) yesterday chorused their intention to temporarily close down any college/school involved in brawling.
“The closure will be in place pending the results of an investigation into the violent incident,” Ovec secretary-general Chaiprug Sereerak said. His office would instruct all vocational colleges/schools under its supervision to prepare plans to prevent their students from brawling during school breaks.
Opec secretary-general Bundit Sriputtangkul said that if students of any school or college are found engaged in a violent brawl, that educational institute would be immediately shut for three to seven days.
“We will allow the reopening only after the executive of the institute presents us with a good plan on how to prevent the recurrence of violence,” Bundit said. All privately run educational institutes are under his office’s supervision.
 Ohec secretary-general Kamjorn Tatiyakavee said troublesome institutes should be closed at least until they regain public trust. He also recommended disciplinary action against the executives of the educational institutes whose students have continued to brawl.
Ohec supervises all higher-educational institutes.
Police searches have recently uncovered many weapons inside Rajamangala University of Technology Uthenthawai Campus and the Pathumwan Institute of Technology.