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Published on October 5, 2007

There are 202 schools issuing faulty high school diplomas and 1,100 students have used these documents to apply for places at Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU), Deputy Education Minister Varakorn Samkoses said yesterday.

An STOU investigation into the educational backgrounds of its students from 2001 to 2006 found that many had used faulty high school diplomas issued by 202 schools.

The university found that most of these schools were under the Office of the Private Education Commission (Opec). Bangkok and Nakhon Si Thammarat had the highest number of such institutions with four each.

The faulty diplomas came in two forms - those where the person's name was printed on someone else's diploma, and those issued by a registered school or a school that had been closed, for people who had not attended classes, he said.

Officials who previously uncovered what was going on at these schools could do nothing as the diplomas were not considered forgeries since they were genuinely issued by the schools, but only carried wrong information.

It was not until the Teachers and Educational Personnel Council Act 2003 came into effect that the authorities could prosecute the schools at fault. The law states that any authorised persons issuing false documents or issuing legitimate documents carrying false information can be charged with forgery, Varakorn said.

He said he had informed Opec so it could tell provincial governors to act against or close down guilty schools.

He also instructed related agencies such as the Higher Education Commission, the Basic Education Commission and the Vocational Education Commission to watch out for applications with false documents.

Vorakorn said the situation was not as bad as when the 1997 Constitution was in effect, since its requirement that MPs hold a bachelor's degree led many to use faulty diplomas to apply for undergraduate programmes.

He said Opec reported that in 2003 technical colleges in 10 northeastern provinces - all named after political parties - had issued high school-equivalent diplomas for politicians applying for degree courses.

Varakorn believed some politicians in power used these faulty diplomas.

STOU president Pratya Vesarach said that since the university was established, 1,100 people had used false documents to apply for enrolment and the university had dismissed 416 students and revoked the degrees granted to 10 students.

He said the Election Commission (EC) could contact the university directly if it wanted to check on the suspect qualifications of politicians.

STOU will complete its investigation within a year, he said.

The Nation