Suchart launches ministry with more tablets, promises of action

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Suchart launches ministry with more tablets, promises of action

SUPINDA NA MAHACHAI
WANNAPA KHAOPA
THE NATION


BANGKOK: -- As many as 900,000 tablets would now be handed out to all Prathom 1 and some Prathom 4 students (first and fourth graders), newly appointed Education Minister Prof Suchart Thadathamrongvej said after meeting with the tablet policy management committee yesterday on his first day in office.

The newly declared number of tablets is an increase from the previously agreed 700,000, with a Bt1.9 billion budget.

As a result, the meeting agreed to submit a request to the Cabinet for another Bt1 billion in budget for the extra tablets, he said.

Suchart said all 860,000 Prathom 1 students under different ministries would be given the tablets, while the remaining tablets would be distributed to some Prathom 4 students.

Thailand would buy all the tablets from China under a government-to-government contract, he added.

At his policy declaration session at the Education Ministry, Suchart vowed to care for students and teachers as if they were family members - and rush to put the Pheu Thai Party's education policies into practice.

Hundreds of state officials from across the country attended the session yesterday. Many more watched the declaration live on National Broadcasting Services of Thailand (NBT channel) and Educational Television of Ministry of Education (ETV satellite channel) and listened to the policies on radio.

Red-shirt supporters from many provinces cheered Suchart and gave him a warm welcome to the ministry.

Originating from the same party as former education minister Woravat Auapinyakul, most of the announced policies are similar to Woravat's and in line with the party's intentions. Some policies will be added to improve the current ones. In addition, Suchart has some ideas about educational development he said he would try to push forward as well.

"My party's administration concept is about taking care of people as family members - and I will apply that to my administration at the ministry, too. I won't force teachers and students to do what the ministry wants to achieve, but will listen to them and what they want."

"With a commitment to a student-centred approach, students will be allowed to think out of the box or think differently and voice their needs," he said.

To adhere to the concept, Suchart vowed there would be no corruption and no cheating among students and teachers. "Although I support donations to provide more educational resources to schools, I will try to ensure no "tea money" bribery at schools. Teachers' recruitment and transfer processes and their academic standing assessments will be open and transparent - they should be allowed to defend their work during the assessment."

Technology-based learning is among the major policies of the party, which he will continue - including the tablet distribution to students and "e-education" programmes and contents developed to change schools to life-long learning centres.

The new minister said he would continue the English Speaking Year policy initiated by Worawat and strongly supports it. "We will try to seek more English native speakers for schools to encourage students to practise it. Every school should stop paying for unnecessary events and hiring companies to make banners printed with my picture to welcome me. The money should be used to hire foreign teachers instead. The Chinese language will also be promoted among interested students."

To open more opportunities for students to pursue education abroad, Suchart said he would add one more scholarship in addition to the current one-district one-scholarship project.

He also pledged to continue dealing with teachers' debt, merging small schools with management problems, creating students to be professionals, and a graduates' endowment fund.

Suchart talked about an idea that would allow agriculturists to transfer their experience to upper secondary and vocational education. Also, he urged officials of the Ordinary National Educational Test to provide a test every month instead of once a year to help students.

"The ministry's administrators and officials must implement their policies [promptly] otherwise they will be transferred," he said.