During a seminar here with caretaker Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang, 531 teachers from 19 provinces said a year had passed since the government instituted its plan to establish educational zone offices, but many regulations remained unpassed, teachers had not been assessed and promoted and most people involved remained in the dark as to how the scheme was to operate.

During a question and answer session, Chaturon was told the scheme remained fragmented and teachers were confused.

Anan Pakarat and Supoj Jiamjai,who head subcommittees of teacher and educational personnel at educational zone offices 2 and 3 in Udon Thani, and Khon Kaen secretary-general of the educational zone office Somyong Kaewsuphan said there was a lack of direction in the scheme.

Staff were unable to use their experience to help with the organisation of the scheme, while human resource personnel were stymied by the fact that less than half of about 100 regulations had been passed.

The representatives said some regulations issued by subcommittees on teacher and educational personnel were not applicable to the current situation and there was a lack of clarity. That pointed to the need for a central information centre to make sure everyone was kept fully apprised, they told Chaturon.

Others complained that many teachers with special expertise in certain subjects had still not received a special allowance of Bt3,500 by the government.

About 20,000 other teachers were still waiting to be assessed for promotion and had become discouraged upon learning that the assessments had been cancelled.

Chaturon said he would look into the situation. He said there had already been many meetings to try to get to grips with the problems, including issuing more than 50 ministerial regulations.

He said the Education Ministry had lost a lot of its legal experts who had been transferred to the Administrative Court.

Chaturon said the Bt3,500 allowance had been bogged down because the Budget Bureau had claimed there were no regulations to support releasing the funds.

He rejected suggestions that assessment of teachers for promotion had been cancelled because of a lack of funding. He said it was because only 25 per cent of the first group evaluated had passed and there was concern that if it continued, it would be a waste of funds.

The Nation

Udon Thani