Local news

Winners leg it A team from the Suksasawan School in Samut Prakan runs their winning 31-legged race in a regional competition at the Hua Mak Stadium on December 19. The team will represent Bangkok and its nearby provinces in the national championships on January 23.

Fitting punishment

Begging act changed

The government has approved a draft change to the Beggar Control Act, calling for the death penalty for anybody who mutilates children and forces them to work as street beggars.

Government officials believe that the penalties set out in the existing act are not strong enough to effectively tackle the long-standing problem of street beggars.

"Once it becomes law, it will replace the 1941 Beggar Control Act, which is considered obsolete to tackle today's increasingly complex situation of street begging," government minister Issara Somchai said.

Critical thinking

Ministry shifts from rote learning

The Education Ministry is moving away from rote learning in favour of teaching methods that develop a student's analytical skills.

Primary and secondary schools run by the Office of the Basic Education Commission will be instructed to adopt methods that focus on critical thinking starting in May of next year, Education Minister Jurin Laksanavisit said.

EASY NEWS FOR M1-3

Deadly cloud

Gas leak kills one

Poisonous gas leaked from a factory in Saraburi. The gas killed one worker and injured four others. It happened on December 18.

The dead worker is 23-year-old Apichart Srimuang. Two of the injured workers were put in intensive care.

Other workers found the gas leak. They left the factory.

	leak (v): to allow liquid or gas to get in or out through a small hole or crack intensive care (n): special care for people in hospital who are very seriously ill or injured draft (n): a rough written version of something penalty (n): a punishment for breaking a law mutilate (v): to damage somebody's body very badly, especially by cutting or tearing off part of it rote (adj): the process of learning something by repeating it until you remember it rather than by understanding the meaning of it analytical (adj): using a logical method of thinking about something critical thinking (n): thinking that involves making fair, careful judgements