School directors who pocket cash may be fired

The Office of Basic Education Commission (OBEC) is considering the firing of school directors found guilty of pocketing cash donations - 'tea money'- from parents trying  to get their examfailing children into schools.

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) deputy chief Colonel Suchat Wonganantachai, will get more reports from OBEC's deputy secretarygeneral on the investigation this afternoon, as parents continue to give DSI details about their payments to schools.

OBEC secretarygeneral Kasama Voravarn na Ayutthaya said yesterday that money donations voluntarily given by parents were used for development of school teaching and learning methods. It was only in a few cases that the money went to school executives' pockets.

Kasama said she had assigned educational zone offices to find the facts about alleged tea money. However, she said, schools were unable to run properly when depending solely on the government subsidy; it covered only 40 per cent of total expenses for middle and largesized schools. Normally these schools  issued receipts for money donations they received, according to the Education Ministry's regulations.

Kasama said her office was willing to cooperate fully with the DSI investigation and urged DSI to reach a conclusion that  included the schools' problems too. She said that in the past her office had threatened punishment for  school administrators who pocketed money donations instead of developing the schools.

DSI investigator Pol Lt Col Pongin Inthornkhao said parents from Bangkok's Bodindecha 3 School, and Chiang Mai and Nakhon Ratchasima, gave  information to the DSI yesterday about tea money payment procedures and about people reportedly involved. Declining to give details, he said the more famous the schools are, the more tea moneytaking alleged¬ly involved.

Pongin said most schools took the money in a similar fashion, via the English program. Some, supposed to take in 500 students, reportedly recruited only 300 and left 200 seats open for tea moneygiving parents' children. He said parents quoting higher money donations could get their children admitted, while some schools  claimed to have received  money from certain associations that didn't exist. He said a school's English program had to state clearly the amount of money collected from parents, and approval from OBEC, but some projects had not been submitted to the office.

DSI deputy chief Colonel Suchat Wonganantachai said he would get details from OBEC today about tea money complaints filed with  OBEC. He said that if private schools under OBEC did not receive a  government subsidy, their requests for money from parents would be considered a business, not a law violation. As these cases might involve authorityabusing officials, he had had talks with the Office of National AntiCorruption Commission and the Public Sector AntiCorruption Commission. DSI would  send the case reports to them.