This could mostly be due to the respect students have for their teachers and for the subjects they are learning. This is what I have experienced during my six-year teaching role at one of the tertiary educational institutions in Thailand.

For most of the time I spent teaching Thai students, I learned much about educational curriculum at the tertiary educational level. My role was to develop an information systems curriculum and get it properly recognised and approved by the Education Ministry. This is quite a rigorous process. I have literally spent six years working and implementing various required procedures that should get the curriculum approved.

The ministry requires us to review our course outlines, lesson plans, final examinations and grades with selected professors from various universities. This we have done for most of the last six years and I can say the curriculum is still in the process of being accepted. I don't mean to criticise what is happening - in fact I truly think this is needed for every tertiary educational institution in Thailand and not only for start-ups.

Most students who fail to get into prestigious universities (for many reasons) resort to other private institutions to pursue their degrees. Keeping in mind those stringent requirements imposed on private tertiary educational institutions, I strongly believe the level of education students get in high schools is very much correlated with the province or district they had studied in.

I found that students from Bangkok high schools had excellent backgrounds in mathematics, sciences and literary subjects, whereas those that came from schools in the rural parts of Thailand didn't have the slightest idea about the basics. This problem does not lie with the student alone - on the other hand it strictly lies within the type of educational quality control measures that the government has placed on its elementary schools and high schools.

While the government is strongly imposing measures on private institutions to implement rigorous measures to ensure the quality of the education they provide, the types of students admitted into those universities (because they have only these government high school graduates to choose from) are very "weak" mostly due to the type of education they received at the high school level.

If we expect to graduate students who can fulfil the requirements of the industry and if we expect parents not to send their children to other countries to get their education simply because they don't believe in the Thai educational system, then the government needs to divert some of its attention to government high schools located in all parts of the country so it can maintain a unified, robust and quality-based educational system countrywide.

Petros Rigas

Bangkok

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Rights group calls on junta to respect freedom of assembly

Forum-Asia urges the Thai military government to ensure freedom of assembly rights for today's demonstration at Sanam Luang. It also urges the Thai military government to refrain from threatening to use state of emergency provisions to instil fear in those who intend to join the demonstration.

Today is "Judgement Day" when the nine judges of the Constitution Tribunal will decide whether to disband the Thai Rak Thai Party and/or the Democrat Party. The two political parties are charged with fraud for their actions during the April 2 elections last year.

The mass demonstration planned to respond to the court's decision has already attracted people from neighbouring provinces amidst numerous military checkpoints set up to prohibit people from pouring into Bangkok. Last week, farmers from the Northeast provinces representing the Assembly of the Poor were harassed by the police and military and blocked from entering Bangkok. The group had planned to hold a demonstration in front of Government House.

Thailand is a state party to the United Nations' International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which emphasises that the state has to protect and uphold the rights to freedom of assembly.

The military government has continually labelled these demonstrations as "threats to national security". General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, the head of the Council for National Security, in March of this year, even urged the government to issue state of emergency regulations in Bangkok to curtail anti-coup demonstrations. In April, Defence Minister Boonrawd Somtas said that the military "will not tolerate any protests against the government" and assumed that "whoever tries to cause trouble in the country is … a traitor". The CNS has repeatedly threatened that a state of emergency could be declared if demonstrators turn unruly.

Under international human rights law, "national security" may be invoked to justify measures limiting certain rights only when measures are taken to protect the existence of the nation or its territorial integrity or political independence against force or threat of force. National security cannot be invoked as a reason for imposing limitations to prevent merely local or relatively isolated, presumed threats to law and order.

Thailand as a nation is not threatened by the peaceful assembly of the people pronouncing their opinion about their own government. If these assemblies are allowed to happen, it will show that Thailand is growing as a democracy, that it is a country ruled by law and not by oppression and fear.

In recent Thai political history, particularly October 14, 1973 and October 6, 1976, massive demonstrations by the people ended with a brutal reaction on behalf of the military. In the most recent incident, pro-democracy forces rallied in May 1992 in response to the junta's refusal to return the country to democracy, resulting in a bloody military crackdown.

Anselmo Lee

Executive Director,

Forum-Asia

Bangkok

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No reasons for Thailand alone to have cheap HIV/Aids drugs

I am sure many readers are aware of the need for access to medical care including medications developed and patented abroad. There have been protests and heated negotiations to try to assure that such pharmaceuticals, mainly for HIV/Aids, are available here in Thailand at a greatly reduced price.

I am quite sympathetic to the plight of many patients who need the best care and medications, which are often very expensive. I am also sure that many patients abroad have the same problem as far as being able to afford medical care and medications.

One point I would like to mention from a commercial standpoint is why should the drugs be so cheap here in Thailand?

The companies that develop them spend a huge amount of capital on research and development. They patent their formulas and then want a profit. Big pharmaceutical corporations abroad recruit highly trained professionals and invest in the best technology. I am confident that Thai companies could do the same and develop medications rather than only produce them based on foreign formulas. I am also sure whatever products they develop, they would make a healthy profit and not offer any discounts abroad.

Lastly, to raise money to pay for medications, I would speculate there are many options here in Thailand. There is certainly plenty of money being spent on non-essential items. Maybe a tax on Mercedes Benz autos? Black Label whisky? Rolex watches? Cigarettes? The revenue could all be earmarked for importing medications or paying the appropriate fees to the drug companies who hold the patents.

An Alternative Viewpoint

Bangkok

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Andaman beaches and businesses back in action

Re: "Angry seas cause closure of Phuket beaches", News, May 20.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand would like to report that all beaches in Phuket, Krabi and Phang Nga are now open to tourists as before. Tourist businesses, including beach restaurants and local services, are fully operational.

High tides are experienced at new and full phases of the moon. The high tides at the Andaman coast are typically associated with this particular phase of the lunar cycle and seasonal monsoons. The night of May 17 was the first night of the waning moon and high tides came in but soon subsided to a normal level.

Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya

Director, International Public Relations Division

Tourism Authority of Thailand

Bangkok

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Ethical questions surround British human-embryo bill

The British government, in violation of European law, recently overturned its ban on the creation of human-animal embryos.

The draft of the Human Tissue and Embryos Bill would allow scientists to create a chimeric embryo by injecting cells from an animal into a human embryo, and a human transgenic embryo by injecting animal DNA into a human embryo. The first somatic cell nuclear transfers is named after the chimera - the fire-breathing female monster of Greek mythology who had a lion's head, a goat's body and a serpent's tail.

On a biological level the pre-natal being is not like any other tissue: it is human with its own DNA indicating that, as a human, it has the same fundamental and moral right to life as any other human being. The proposed therapy performed on early human embryos is immoral because it alters forever the basic genetic constitution of the person and all of his or her future offspring.

Amazingly, though embryonic stem-cell experiments have failed to produce a single, unqualified, therapeutic success, even in animal models, supporters of the embryonic model continue to laud their unproven and currently unethical methods and ignore the fact that adult stem-cell therapies are being used extensively today in treating diseases.

We must help those who are suffering, but we may not use a good end to justify an evil means. Human beings are not raw materials to be exploited. To suggest otherwise is to endorse a macabre interpretation of progress.

Paul Kokoski

Hamilton, Canada