The Council for Thai Private Education has opposed the Education Ministry's proposal to lend textbooks to students at primary and secondary levels to save money instead of giving away new sets of textbooks, saying no student wants to learn from books in bad conditions.
Private Education Council president Jirapan Pimpan said she disagreed with the ministry's plan to change its current policy of giving out books to only lending them by the next academic year. She said this could create an additional financial burden on parents as students will inevitably have to ask for a whole new set of textbooks.
"Students, especially at the primary level, usually draw things on their textbooks such as funny notes and no one can stop them because it's their nature. Therefore, if we lend them textbooks, the books will definitely be in bad condition when they are returned to school at the end of the year," Ms Jirapan said.
"Many years ago, the Education Ministry tried this idea and it did not work. Parents had to buy a new set of textbooks for their children. So private schools prefer the ministry to subsidise new textbooks for all students as has been done before."
According to the Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec), it spends about 5 billion baht a year buying textbooks for eight million students at primary and secondary levels across the country.
The Obec subsidy on textbooks stands at about 200 baht per student at the kindergarten level and it can go up to almost 1,300 baht per head at secondary levels.
Education Minister Teerakiat Chareonsettasin recently announced his intention to change the ministry's current policy.
He said Obec could save up to 1 billion baht a year if it does not have to buy new textbooks for students each year.
"We should lend textbooks to students and pass them on to the next class if the content taught in the curriculum does not change, instead of buying the same new books every year," Dr Teerakiat said.
Nonetheless, the minister said Obec will still give away exercise books to all students, as the exercise books cannot be reused.
Dr Teerakiat added this method will also teach students to be aware of their responsibility to take care and share textbooks.
"I have instructed Obec to follow the proposed plan and expect to see progress by the next academic year," he said.