Thousands of students in eastern Bangkok still do not have a school to go to next month following the second round of admissions.

There are more than 4,500 Mathayom 1 pupils without places in the eastern Bangkok area despite schools increasing their class sizes by 10 pupils.

Eastern Bangkok is covered by national education area 2. There are 35 schools in the area offering Mathayom study.

Increasing the class sizes resulted in 4,370 extra students being squeezed into schools after they had failed to secure places during the first round of admissions.

But there were still 4,584 pupils

with no place to study, according to the area's education director Suriyon Wasombat.

The area office had arranged urgent meetings with the schools. The new school year starts in May.

Suriyon said the meeting came up with three potential solutions.

More places will be found at schools in the area with room and teachers.

At least one new school will be built by next term.

And, the office will seek Basic Education Commission permission to boost rolls in 478 classrooms by an additional five students.

"With these solutions we believe we can provide places for all students," Suriyon said.

He said more teachers were not necessary. "Teachers in Bangkok might be asked to undertake more classroom hours - but not more than 24 hours a week."

Education Minister Wijit Srisa-an said all Bangkok students would have places to study by tomorrow.

In other parts of the city, school admissions have been less of a problem. Bangkok Mathayom classes will be accommodating 44,785 students.

In the second round of admissions all students in area 1 have secured places but schools in area 3 were forced to increase classroom sizes to 50 pupils from 40, according to Basic Education Commission deputy secretary-general Mantana Sangkhakrit.

A teacher committee member at the popular Horwang School said it would "follow the policy to expand class sizes to 50 students in our 13 classrooms".

Another teacher at the school said it would add an additional two classrooms accommodating 40 pupils each.

"However, we can't hire more teachers because we have no money for that," she said.

Meanwhile, an angry parent of a student who failed to be admitted to a popular school in the east of the city accused the school of being secretive.

She said it refused to reveal the minimum successful entrance-exam mark. She said her daughter performed well but was still refused admission.

"If the admission was transparent the school should revealed the minimum mark. I just want to make sure my daughter's mark was lower than the minimum," she said.

The school in question accepted just 160 new secondary pupils out of more than 2,000 applicants.

Despite the ministry attempt to prevent state schools from trading seats for bribes - "tea money" - another parent said a famous school in the area demanded Bt100,000 from her.

The minister previously banned state schools on accepting any donations during the student-admission period.

Saijai Kirdmongkon,

Chatrarat Kaewmorakot

The Nation