Provincial Governor Uthai Suwan said he would seek cooperation from school administrators to schedule a brief break at this time every year. Uthai said he welcomed the students' interest in making money by scything rice.

"The idea conforms to His Majesty the King's self-sufficiency economy principle. Students who are children of farmers are supposed to be able to do the farming, as well as help their families do it," he added.

Amnat Charoen education chief Wiset Phoomiwichai said 98 per cent of students in the province were from farming families.

Local politicians, kamnan and village heads had all asked him to allow the harvest-time break.

Regulations allowed schools to close for seven days without permission but breaks of 10 days or longer required approval.

There are 23 secondary schools and 262 primary schools in the province.

Students can earn between Bt170 and Bt200 a day cutting rice.

Rangsit Bunrod, director of Amnat Charoen 2 School in Muang district, said rice cutting was easy work at this time of year because paddies were soft and the weather was cooler.

Rangsit said his school would reopen on November 25.

"A lot of students would be absent anyway if the school stayed open," he said. Of 700 students, the smallest number recorded skipping class to cut rice recently was 30.

Eighth grader Lalita Phutthasen said she cut rice to save money for a New Year celebration with friends - a reason cited by many of her classmates.

Pathum Ratchawongsa's Ban Muang Po School director Sathit Sillathan  said absenteeism at his school had risen as locals competed with farmers arriving from Suphan Buri with tractors.

Suchart Soongrueng

The Nation