Public school under fire for massive spike in fees
Sep 07, 2010
Published: 31/08/2010 at 12:00 AM
A public school is under fire for increasing its fees by up to 65% - in "flagrant disregard for the government's 15-year free education scheme", a group representing students say.
Representatives of students at the school in northeastern Chaiyaphum province have called on the Education Ministry to look into the school's excessively high tuition fees this year.
About 10 students and parents from Kanchanapisek School yesterday lodged a complaint with Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat calling on him to investigate the school for allegedly collecting high tuition fees from both boarding and non-resident students.
They claimed the tuition fee had increased by between 33% and 65%.
The school's decision to increase tuition fees was not in line with the government's 15-year free education scheme, they said. The fee increase had been introduced without the consent of students and parents.
A student representative who declined to be named said Kanchanapisek School had been allowed to collect additional fees on top of tuition fees that are provided free by the government.
However, the fees are supposed to be suitable and approved by the school's committee. The school is also required to take into consideration the consent of students and parents if it wants to levy extra fees, the student representative said.
The school allegedly increased its tuition fees this academic year for all education levels.
Students and parents earlier lodged a similar complaint with the director of Chaiyaphum's Educational Zone 1 and the provincial governor. Little progress has been made.
Another student representative said the school had collected 42,000 baht a head a year in tuition fees from new students studying at Mathayom Suksa 1 (Grade 7). This represented an increase of about 35% on last year's rate of 31,000 baht.
The tuition fees for boarding students studying at Mathayom Suksa 2 to 5 (Grade8 to Grade 11) had risen to 28,000 baht a head from 21,000 baht.
The school increased the fees for non-boarding students to 9,400 baht a head, from 5,700 baht last year, a 65% increase.
The school has cited higher expenses from setting up IT rooms and hiring foreign teachers to justify the increases. Each student has to pay 2,500 baht to use IT services and another 500 baht to be taught by foreign teachers.
However, the school had not provided enough computers for all students, the student representative said. And no foreign teachers had been hired.
The students and parents also complained that the school had failed to hand out free textbooks provided by the government to students.
They also accused it of providing students with low-quality lunches with rotten fruit. Most school buildings were dilapidated, they said.
The school's executives could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Mr Chinnaworn said the Office of the Basic Education Commission would be asked to look into the complaints and report to him within a week. He threatened to take disciplinary action against school executives if they are found guilty of violating the ministry's policy on suitable fee collection and the distribution of free textbooks.
From Bangkok Post