The number of people granted scholarships under the revamped scheme will also be reduced from around 920 to less than 300 a year, as Education Minister Wijit Srisa-an intends to award scholarships to students based on educational service areas rather than home districts.

The project has been renamed the "Scholarship for Local Development" scheme.

"Each year, the government will have to shoulder Bt3 billion in costs incurred by scholarship recipients selected in the last two years. So, we have to reduce the number of new recipients," Wijit explained.

The scholarship scheme received financial support from the Government Lottery Office's two- and three-digit lottery operations over the past two years. But the lotteries have been suspended, following news they were set up without proper legal status.

So the national government now has to pay for the recipients' education and related costs.

Wijit said: "We have decided to continue with the idea of One District One Scholarship only. The idea is that students from provinces other than Bangkok still have the chance to win scholarships for furthering their study in universities both within Thailand and abroad."

Punrung Puntuhong, an overseas-education expert at the Office of Civil Service Commission (OCSC), said that scholarships funded by the Budget Bureau would have service obligations.

"The scholarship recipients will have to commit their services to the government [for a certain period of time]. They will also be required to study in fields needed by the government," he said.

Punrung said scholarship recipients would not be allowed to study international relations, law and arts because these fields would require high competency in foreign languages, which would take quite a long time to acquire.

To win scholarships under the revamped scheme, Grade-12 students will have to get a grade-point average of 3.0 up and successfully pass an exam held by the National Institute of Education Testing Service.

A study by Mahidol University's Institute for Population and Social Research has found that of 921 people granted scholarships in the scheme's first year, 739 had enrolled in programmes overseas. Of these, 40 have asked to come back to Thailand to continue their studies. Another 20 per cent of recipients had switched to another programme.

"Some students are good at maths and science, but are not fluent in foreign languages. These students thus asked to come back to Thailand to continue their studies. The decision to come back to Thailand doesn't mean that these students are not academically competent," Punrung said.

The study report said scholarship recipients selected in the second year were still in the process of adapting themselves in foreign countries as they only arrived a few months ago. 

Chularat Saengpassa

The Nation