Teachers at private schools in the far South should receive a monthly risk allowance to ensure fairness with state teachers, the Confederation of Private Schools said yesterday.
The confederation made the request during its inaugural meeting in Pattani to review its activities since its inception more than two years ago.
The confederation represents 14,000 private school teachers in six provinces in the South.
Khoddaree Binsen, the confederation's chairman, said private school teachers face the same risks as their counterparts at state schools.
He said the confederation had previously made the same proposal to the Education Ministry but it was not approved.
The ministry should value the lives of private school teachers, Mr Khoddaree said.
Several private school teachers have been killed by southern insurgents but they are often ignored, he said. Private school teachers had not closed schools in response to the violence as state schools had done, which might explain why they attracted less attention.
Mr Khoddaree said the confederation disagreed with state school closures. The confederation was ready to send private school teachers to teach at state schools if state school teachers were reluctant to do their jobs, he added.
Meanwhile, police said the torching of two closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in Yala's Muang district on Saturday could be the work of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) militant group led by Uzman Kordor and Rusmee Jarong.
Police said this same group probably burned 97 CCTV cameras in seven districts of Yala on Jan 14.
However, police did not rule out a business conflict as the possible motive for the CCTV camera torchings in Yala.
On Saturday, one CCTV camera was torched near a municipality school in Ming Muang Road. The other camera was burned near an intersection in front of an Islamic school in Muang district.