PM vows to tackle welfare, education issues

Prayut, who presided over an event to mark the occasion in Bangkok, expressed hope that all schools would be of good quality and be free from the “tea money” issue. 

He urged teachers to apply cyber technology in educating children on how to live in a changing society without creating conflict.

At the Education Ministry’s Teachers Council of Thailand Hall, Prayut presented awards to individuals who had benefited from the Thai education system and paid his respects to his old teachers from Wat Nuannoradit School – Boonma Rattanaubon and Wijitra Chaipat. 

In his two-hour speech, Prayut urged teachers of all faiths to propel the country forward and nurture students who abided by the law, were disciplined, and could compete with citizens of other countries.

He called on teachers to be prudent in their spending and focus on morality while following HM the King’s sufficiency-economy principle. 

He said the government planned a new approach to tackle the teachers’ debt and welfare issues. 

“We have to see how teachers can get extra pay because we cannot give a pay rise to all teachers,” the PM said. 

“Some teachers want more time to teach students. Since they claimed that a lot of time was needed for teacher evaluations, we must appropriately adjust and lessen the evaluation time.”

Meanwhile, 400 teachers in the deep South province of Narathiwat vowed to perform their duties despite 346 other teachers in the province asking for transfers over safety fears. 

At a ceremony in the province’s Sungai Kolok district, which saw 70 outstanding educators honoured, Prasert Simcharoen led fellow teachers in making the vow. 

They also stood in silence in remembrance of 187 slain teachers and other educational personnel, including schoolteacher Juling Pongkanmoon, who were murdered in Narathiwat’s Rangae district in 2005.

Another teacher, Udon Saising, holds after-school classes on the King’s sufficiency economy principle and teaches new theories through a hands-on approach along with his fulltime job at Ban Kotabaru School in Yala’s Raman district.

Under the school’s “Farming for Lunch” project, Udon teaches kids interested in farming how a one-rai (0.4 of an acre) space behind the school could be used for integrated farming. 

Students get to learn how to grow vegetables, chicken and fish, and the farm produce is eaten at lunch at the school or sold to locals. 

“I want my students to have farming knowledge and apply the King’s sufficiency economy concept so they are equipped with vocational skills,” he said. 

“What I want for the National Teachers’ Day is a peaceful co-existence in society in which all kids are educated and equipped with life skills so they can fend for themselves and protect themselves from harm.”

In the North, Somsak Wutthisat, a former outstanding teacher and the current school director of Ban Mae Rameung in Tak’s Tha Song Yang district, urged the government to take care of rural teachers by increasing their pay and giving them welfare so that they had an incentive to remain in the rural area.