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Published on December 4, 2007

She spoke in response to a report that said the Education Ministry planned to close nearly 13,000 small government schools at both primary and secondary levels, which had very small numbers of students and teachers.

Khunying Kasama said the Ministry was preparing to upgrade around 2,800 such schools by 2009 so they meet basic qualifications as state schools.

By then, there would be around 600 schools whose students would be sent to study elsewhere, before they were closed down.

Some 800 of the 2,800 schools would undergo development plans with an approved budget next year. The remaining 2,000 would be upgraded the following year, at a cost of about Bt2 billion.

Meanwhile, an Obec office with jurisdiction over the upper southern provinces pleaded with local residents not to overreact to news that 13,000 schools were at risk of being shutdown.

Phairat Saengthong said all students would have equal chance to continue studying, but merely in other schools farther from their homes if any schools had to be shut for good reasons.

Kasama's statement came in response to a seminar in Nakhon Si Thammarat on Sunday, where it was said that 12,828 schools regarded as " below standard" were to be closed down under long-term education reforms.

Last year, the government announced it was going to dissolve 12,828 small schools with less than 120 students - about 40 per cent of the 32,288 schools nation-wide - after they were deemed not financially viable and of low quality compared to larger schools.

The small schools have some 931,574 students and 58,655 teachers. And each school has a limited budget via a Bt1,100-per-head subsidy provided by the government.

The Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment report last year also showed that 22,866 small schools (defined as those having less than 300 students) had undergone educational-standard assessments.

The Nation