Assumption merger only if parents, teachers agree: agency

The Office of Private Education Commission will not agree to merge the primary and secondary sections of the Assumption College if the plan fails to get support from teachers and parents.

"We will grant the approval only if there is mutual consent," the office's acting secretary-general Chanwit Tubsupun said yesterday.

He was speaking in response to reports that teachers at the college dressed in black to voice their protest against a move that they suspect will require them to resign as part of the merger.

So far, Chanwit said, Assumption College had not submitted an official plan for his office to consider, adding that the college had only consulted his office.

He urged the teachers to lodge a complaint if they are actually forced to resign.

An informed source said the college had asked its teachers in the primary section to sign resignation letters because it did not want to award severance pay.

"But by law, the teachers are entitled to severance pay because the current employer - the Assumption College primary section - will not exist after the merger," the source said.

Opponents to the merger have accused the college of having ulterior motives.

To date, the college has insisted that the merger is designed to facilitate the school's management and to bring the two sections together under one legal entity.

The primary and secondary sections now function as separate legal entities, with the primary school located on Soi St Louis, and secondary school on Soi Charoenkrung 40.

The Assumption College, a well-known boys school, announced on its website that its students and teachers would continue at the current sites even after the two sections are merged.

"Owing to the 1999 National Education Act and 2007 Private Education Act, the two sections had to go under separate entities. But we have always wanted to keep them as a single entity and, hence, have been exploring legal channels to bring them together," the college said.

A parent, who enquired about the merger, said she had been assured that changes would only be on paper.

Prof Dr Kua Wongboonsin, who chairs the parent and teachers association and is also a vice president at Chulalongkorn University, pointed out that the Assumption College also had a campus on Rama II |and some students had been moved |there.

Kua has already lodged a complaint about the issue with the Central Administrative Court, which has decided not to issue an injunction pending the review.