Few teachers ready for school transfers
a government evaluation has found that less than 20 per cent of schools are "ready" for control to be passed to local administration organisations, and that most teachers are uncertain about their job status.
A source at the Bureau of Basic Education Policy and Planning said that 2,120 schools nation-wide had applied for the evaluation and, so far, about 1,000 schools had been studied. But only 177 - mostly secondary schools - were found to be ready. Teachers at the rest said they were unwilling for control to be transferred to local bodies. "The problem is that most schools agree to be under local administration organisations, but many teachers express unwillingness about the transfer, so these teachers now don't know what to do and have nowhere else to go. Everything has been halted, while the transfer - which began in February - is expected to be complete before April 5," the source said. Meanwhile, Permanent Secretary for Education Khunying Kasama Varavarn said the school transfer would go on, although a meeting of the committee on power decentralisation to local administration organisations - slated for February 27 - was postponed indefinitely, possibly until after the April 2 general election. She said the panel had already approved the transfer's important criteria and most of the benefits for teachers were transferred to local bodies. The important issue needing to be discussed by the panel was what to do with teachers who do not want to be employees of local bodies, but want to teach at the same schools that will come under local administration, she said. The Education Ministry would propose two solutions; that teachers could continue to work at their school indefinitely without having to become employees of local bodies; or they could remain at first in a five-year civil-service term and after that they would have to renew a job contract every year, Kasama said. A recent meeting of ministry executives also assigned Adviser to Education Minister Peeraphan Palusuk to head a team to find solutions to help teachers and educational staff affected by the change, she said. She said the ministry would ensure a careful process so that "willing" schools do not overwhelm the management capacity of local organisations and to ensure that local administration bodies were truly ready to oversee basic education
Chularat Saengpassa The Nation.
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