Education Minister Wijit Srisa-an will today meet with top education officials to formulate policies which will be implemented in the next 12 months.

High on the agenda is the transfer of state schools to local administrative bodies, improvement of vocational education and non-formal education, as well as the review of 12 free years of education policy.

"I have not yet made any decision on these issues. I will need to consult with executives at the Education Ministry first," Wijit said yesterday.

According to Wijit, the heads of the ministry's main agencies - which include the Office of Higher Education Commission, the Office of Basic Education Commission and the Office of the Vocational Education - were instructed to propose what they were going to do in the next 12 months.

"We will focus on policies, not daily routines in our meeting," Wijit said.

He said the policies would aim to push ahead the country's educational reform and they must focus on things that could be implemented within a one-year timeframe.

"I expect to hear what assistance these agencies need from the government too," the 72-year-old minister said. The Cabinet is going to discuss the budget for each ministry in its meeting next Tuesday.

In yesterday's Cabinet meeting, Wijit said Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont instructed the Education Ministry to include sufficiency-economy philosophy in its courses. Surayud also asked the Budget Bureau to expedite the Education Ministry's request for more staff and budget for the three southernmost provinces.

Wijit - who was officially appointed education minister on Monday - yesterday arrived the Education Ministry at around noon.

Top education officials waited to greet him. Wijit paid respect to Buddha statues, spirit houses and the King Rama VI statue at the ministry before he attended the meeting with the senior education officials.

Dr Kamolpan Cheewapansri, president of the Parent-Youth Network for Educational Reform, called on Wijit to ask that he scrap the new-university admission system, which gave more weight to students' grade point average.

She also asked the Education Ministry to remove the rule that allows only students with a GPA higher than 3 to apply for a seat at medical schools.

Accompanied by some parents, Kamolpan submitted the requests to Wijit at the Education Ministry. Wijit said he would look into the requests but would need to act on urgent tasks first.