Plan aims to ease teachers' debt burden

Plan aims to ease teachers' debt burden

The Education Ministry and Government Saving Bank (GSB) launched a debt-moratorium scheme Tuesday aimed at easing the financial problems of cash-strapped teachers.

Teachers eligible for the programme are divided into three groups, depending on how serious their debt situation is, the ministry's permanent secretary, Kamchorn Tatiyakawee, said Tuesday.

The first group includes teachers being sued by the bank or who had property seized by a court. The second group are teachers who have defaulted on loans for 12 consecutive months while the last group are those who have not defaulted but want debt restructuring.

The first group will be given an interest payment break of up to three years, though they will have to pay the overdue interest plus the principal amount after the scheme ends.

The second group will have their interest payments slashed by half for two years but will later have to pay the principal amount plus the rest of the interest. The last group will receive debt refinancing from the bank.

To be eligible for the scheme, teachers must have the consent of their guarantors and must allow the Comptroller Department to deduct repayments from their salaries.

"The teachers who want to join the scheme can register at GSB branches across the country from now until the end of July," Mr Kamchorn said.

The debt total accumulated by around 400,000 teachers nationwide, in both the GSB and the Teachers Saving & Credit Cooperatives, is estimated to be around 1 trillion baht, Mr Kamchorn said, adding no official figures were available.

"This [scheme] is an opportunity for us to get a better picture of the teachers' debt problems. We think there might be around 1,700 people with chronic financial problems and around 10,000 others with not so serious problems," he said.

Education Minister Narong Pipatanasai said teachers joining the moratorium scheme should learn how to manage their expenditures on the basis of the sufficiency economy principle because the primary reason for their financial problems is lack of self-discipline.

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