Education Ministry orders solution for disqualified teaching assistants
Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin has instructed senior officials to solve the issue of two teaching assistants disqualified due to technicalities from their jobs at Umphang Wittayakhom School in Tak.
Teerakiat indicated the two women were innocent parties affected by a mistake committed by a state office and should be able to return to work.
Citing the instruction given to Permanent Secretary for Education Karun Sakulpradit regarding the case, Office of Basic Education Commission (OBEC) chief Boonrak Yodphetch said OBEC had already set up a working team to help the women return to work.
The team, which includes Bureau of Personnel Administration Development Legal Affairs director Wanlop Sanguannam and his adviser Chuchat Sapmak, will work with relevant officials to find a solution, but not be involved in a separate fact-finding panel involved in the case.
The case involves teaching assistants Wanalee Thunmak of Sukhothai and Nirawan Cheuboonmee of Loei, whose terminations created a controversy after their credential were rejected despite the fact that they had taught pupils at the school for five months since May.
The Tak Educational Committee has insisted that a review panel followed civil service regulations in rejecting their recruitment because the Secondary Education Service Area Office 38 (Sukhothai-Tak) had proposed that the two teaching assistant positions be filled by maths graduates.
Wanalee and Nirawan, social science majors, were selected from a list that was more than two years old without the committee’s knowledge.