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| Southeast Asia |
| No safe haven for teachers in Thai south |
| 2004-06-11 |
| Teachers living in fear is threatening to undermine a key government undertaking to fight the lure of Islamic militants in Thailand’s troubled South: the provision of good schools. With several teachers killed in seemingly random violence since January, schools have been periodically closed and teachers have often stayed at home or even quit. In their most unified mass protest since January, around 4,000 teachers from Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat gathered in Pattani on Wednesday. Hundreds of them met Education Minister Adisai Bodharamik in a local school. The minister had flown to the south specifically to study their concerns, following the murder earlier this week of one of their colleagues. Mr Jai Inkapho, 49, a Buddhist teacher at a private Islamic school, was shot thrice by a man on a motorcycle in the parking lot of the school, which unlike government schools had no security detail. ’We don’t want to be the second, third and fourth corpses,’ local school administrator Boonsom Thongsriprai told journalists. The teachers demanded more security; an extra 2,500 baht (S$106) for working in schools in the south; more teachers to fill vacancies; and better career opportunities. Mr Pairat Wihakarat, chairman of the Southern Teachers Federation and director of Wat Phamorn-khatiwan primary school in Pattani, told The Straits Times that he and his colleagues often gave money to local students and the community to assist them. They had to do so because the community would otherwise not shield them, he said, but it placed a financial strain on the teachers. Is he saying they paid dhimmi protection money? The low calibre of schools in the south has long been an issue. Locals see the mediocre schooling opportunities as an early roadblock to opportunities for further education and career options. The frustration this spawns is directly related to the syndrome of rebellious youth, analysts and academics say. The unsatisfactory public school system creates a demand for free Islamic ponoh schools, which in turn have felt the heat from security agencies suspicious of teachers’ hidden agendas. Mr Adisai on Wednesday promised the teachers he would press the Defence and Interior ministries to find ways to enhance security. But Mr Pairat said yesterday: ’Adisai only came to cheer us up, but he cannot guarantee security. I cannot say whether I myself will be shot next week... We cannot hope to improve the education system like this.’ |
| Posted by:TS(vice girl) |