The council decided at a meeting yesterday that each university would arrange 10-15 scholarships for southern students in the 2007 academic year, said UPCT chairman and Mae Fah Luang University president Vanchai Sirichana.

He said the idea was to offer educational opportunities and moral support to residents of the violence-plagued region as requested by Council for National Security (CNS) chairman General Sonthi Boonyaratglin.

Vanchai said the seats offered would be on top of the universities' regular student intake through the admission system, so the scholarships would not affect their quota schemes.

The UPCT will have the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC) select candidates for the scholarships, who will be screened on their Grade Point Average and by other tests as required for their desired faculty.

Vanchai said the requirements and faculties available would be announced in May, and added that the scholarships would be granted under a condition that the students return to work in developing their hometowns.

Since the three-year-long unrest had affected students' studies, the universities would also help them strengthen their foundation, he said, and urged the government to help the students with their personal expenses.

Vanchai said the UPCT also decided to grant scholarships for students from other regions to study in the South and conduct teacher and student exchange programmes to promote the sharing of culture and knowledge.

Speaking separately yesterday, the secretary-general of the Office of Basic Education Commission (OBEC) said its policy to allow freedom on teaching materials had led to some schoolbooks being overpriced.

Under the policy, OBEC checks the core content - not the details - of the books, and lets publishers set the prices and schools decide which books to use.

Khunying Kasama Varavarn said that a recent OBEC meeting was told that some 1,200 materials produced by the private

sector had been passed after consideration and that some schoolbooks were found to overpriced or have out-of-date or inaccurate content.

The meeting also agreed there should be some sort of controls on schoolbook prices, though not necessarily by setting a flat rate, and an in-depth study into book procurement at schools to ensure their allocated budget was spent on good quality books, Kasama added.