'Bad' students make a strong case for reforms with huge rally at ministry
"Bad student", a group of high school students and student organisations from 50 educational institutions nationwide, has gathered outside the Ministry of Education on Saturday (September 5) to press its demands for reforms.
At 1.15 pm the students started gathering outside the ministry to prepare for the protest.
At 2pm, the protesters placed a lot of wreaths in front of the ministry's wall with messages stating that schools do not want dictatorship.
At 3pm, the road in front of the ministry was packed with students who came out in large numbers for the rally.
At 5.20pm, Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan arrived on the stage to participate in the debate between the ministry and students.
During the debate, "Bad" student representatives demanded that the minister send officials to oversee whether schools are threatening students.
Meanwhile, Nataphol confirmed that the ministry would accelerate talks with teachers about alleviating their workload and also provide security for students, adding that there were only a small number of teachers who did not agree with the students' moves.
"Every sector must help with reforming education together. This is why we opened the website to enable students to submit complaints," he said.
"Also, the ministry will review regulations and learning courses to ensure that it would be updated, such as reducing school hours and homework."
He added that he could meet the students' needs because this problem must be solved peacefully.
After the debate ended, the students' representative handed over a gift to the education minister.
At 7pm, the students turned on their mobile phone lights to mourn the students who had died because of the education system before dispersing.
The group demanded that the ministry stop threatening students, cancel outdated regulations and reform education with the condition that the education minister must resign if the ministry cannot do as they demanded.
Some 50 police officers from Dusit Metropolitan Police Station and Metropolitan Police Division 1 are providing safety to the protesters, while the protesters have requested permission to hold the rally until 8pm today.
Meanwhile, the hashtag #หนูรู้หนูมันเลว (I know I was bad) was trending on Thai Twitter as school pupils rallied to demand democracy.