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Published on November 28, 2007

There are currently 24,000 extra teachers needed at primary and secondary schools.

As for next year, the government will take into consideration the Committee on Manpower Goals and Policies' study and hold discussions with related agencies before making any decision, Wijit added.

The Cabinet also gave a green light to a strategic plan to develop 12,828 small schools each with less than 120 students to have the same quality as medium-sized and large schools, he said.

The plan aims to improve the curriculum, teaching methods, school administration and manpower, as well as allowing teachers to teach a mixed class within each multi-level range. He revealed the ministry's pilot project in the past year found the participating small schools had greatly improved in quality.

The Cabinet also approved the ministry's Bt999-million centre for physics excellence and assigned the Office of Higher Education Commis-sion to be responsible for the project in developing graduate and PhD researchers, Wijit said.

He added that the Cabinet had also agreed on the education plan for the southern border provinces from 2008 to 2011, which required a budget of Bt16 billion, and urged the next government to give continuous support to these plans.

The Nation