Pakdee Yawanopas and Nucharee Mung-ngarm mean almost everything to the Ban Kam Laem School - because they are now the only staff there.

The new semester began yesterday with Pakdee and Nucharee teaching and taking care of 31 students, who showed up for their class, with children ranging from kindergarten to Grade 6.

"The school badly needs more teachers," Pakdee said.

Established in 1976, this small school in Kham Khuan Kaeo district now has 11 children in its kindergarten class, two children in Grade 1, one child in Grade 2, 10 children in Grade 3, one child in Grade 4, five children in Grade 5 and one child in Grade 6.

Pakdee is the director of Ban Kam Laem School, but in practice he does everything at the school.

"We have also saved some portion of our salaries to pay for the students' lunches," he said, noting that he and Nucharee were trying to sustain the school and its pupils.

Nucharee said she had never had a pay raise in her more than 10 years of teaching. Still, she was determined to serve the school for the benefit of the children there.

Pakdee said the local education office and Tambon Dong Charoen Administrative Organisation provided funds for "free lunches" but it only covered 10 children.

"So, we need to help in order for all students to sit down and

eat together," he said.

The school had three temporary teachers last semester who were paid from donation money by locals, but they had all left, he said.

"The [total] donation amount was about Bt5,000 last semester. So, we could only pay Bt1,500 to each of the temporary teachers. So, they went to work at department stores during the summer break and they haven't returned to the school," Pakdee said.

He complained that education officials who came to inspect the school always emphasised that all students must be taught all eight main subjects, but said this was almost impossible because there were not enough teachers for that.

"Education authorities have never answered our plea for more teachers," he said.

Sa-Nga Soonarong, the director of Yasothon Education Service Area 1, said he was now considering assigning more teachers to the Ban Kam Laem School.

"We had thought, in fact, about closing this school and transferring students to another school because it was such a small school.

"But the local people protested. That's why we have kept the school running," he said.

Sa-Nga said there were about 150 small schools in Yasothon, each with less than 120 students, and some classes were merged to make it possible for the limited number of teachers to teach all the students. Pakdee said having more teachers would mean better quality of teaching and the students would benefit. "If possible, I would like to ask for funds to hire more teachers," he said, as he and some pupils sat on the floor in a class.

If the school can get more teachers, there are other problems to confront, like not having enough desks for students - many of whom wore donated shirts with the names of their original owners still on them.

Kamdee Prommakorn

The Nation

Yasothon