School's out for many poor families as costs spiral
A new study shows that poor children cannot afford even basic education, in spite of guarantees of state-funded schooling for a minimum of 12 years.
It discovered the government covered just one in every 10 baht of primary-education costs. An Educational Network for Children survey revealed yesterday that underprivileged were forced out of school because of mounting "special expenses". The network said the government paid Bt1,100 per pupil per year for primary education, Bt1,800 for mathayom students and Bt2,700 for high-school students. Parents met an additional Bt7,137 a year for primary education, while, an extra Bt8,450 came out of their pockets when children reached mathayom school. The network's Saengwan Maneewan said money had to come from average monthly incomes of between Bt3,000 and Bt6,000. It had to cover the cost of "special expenses" demanded by schools, including the Internet, "activities", landscaping and evaluation [at international-standard schools], she explained. About 6.5 per cent of families removed children from school because they could not afford special expenses. Pichaporn goes to high school in Chiang Mai. She told the network her school asked for Bt360 for evaluation and another Bt600 for the Internet. She said she used it for only two hours, "because there are only 20 computers for several hundred students". Kingkaew Klaisuban took her nine-year-old son out of a school in Bangkok because she did not have Bt80 to pay for a yellow T-shirt the school ordered students to buy. Kingkaew is a single mother of two. She lives in a Pracha-utit slum community. "Eighty baht might be nothing to other people, but that money can feed my family for a week," she said. The National Human Rights Commission said that eight out of 10 school administrators complained state funding was insufficient. Most schools asked for "special expenses" for tools, such as computers. "But what we couldn't believe was that [some] schools asked parents to pay for toilet cleaners," said Suporn Preecha-anan of the NRC. The NRC said parents and the state had different understandings of "expenses". Parents expected to pay nothing because the Constitution guaranteed free education. The state provided tuition only and wanted parents to share expenses," Suporn said.
Subhatra Bhumiprabhas The Nation
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