Photos courtesy of Bangkok Post
Education Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng has asked the Office of the Education Council to conduct a study to improve the distribution of educational subsidies for students.
Read the following story to learn more about this proposal.
Chaturon met with Office of the Education Council executives on August 9. They agreed the existing distribution method was inefficient. The OEC executives said the subsidy expenditure for each student should be increased to support school operations in line with the country’s economic environment.
FUNDING FINDINGS
Government subsidies have been distributed to all schools according to their student headcount and type of institution. For example, Office of the Basic Education Commission schools receive 1,750 baht per student each session for lower secondary schools, and 1,900 baht for upper secondary schools.
The government also grants subsidies for buying textbooks, learning equipment, student uniforms and other items at various rates.
“We have to review the distribution method so that is not only based on headcount,” Chaturon said. “Small schools suffer the most as they have fewer students compared with well-known schools.”
Chaturon added that informal schools have received inadequate subsidies to employ quality teachers or run educational activities.
STUDY NEEDED
The minister said that he heard some schools have tried to recruit more students to attract more subsidies, resulting in poor educational standards. Therefore, the OEC was asked to conduct the study to seek better and more efficient methods of subsidy distribution. The minister suggested the study could consider class sizes rather than overall school headcount.
The study’s findings will be submitted to Chaturon, with a new subsidy distribution method to be implemented in the next academic year if approved.
Exercises
Specify whether each of the following words Is used in the story as a noun, verb, adjective or adverb.
1. quality …………………………..
2. uniforms …………………………..
3. only …………………………..
4. recruit …………………………..
Vocabulary
- distribution (n): the way that something is shared or exists over a particular area or among a particular group of people
subsidy (n): money that is paid by a government or an organisation to reduce the costs of services or of producing goods so that their prices can be kept low
headcount (n): the number of people who have been counted for a particular purpose
inadequate (adj): not enough; not good enough
employ (v): to give somebody a job to do for payment
