EDUCATION

NAKHON RATCHASIMA : The families of students at Nakhon Ratchasima College say they are deep in debt after paying fees to the school which is now at risk of being shuttered.

The college is one of five tertiary institutes, including a university, which failed a recent education standard assessment by the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment.

Suparat

For graduates of the college's nursing faculty, this means they will not receive a professional certificate from the Thailand Nursing Council.

Third- and fourth-year students have filed a police complaint against the college chancellor and demanded that the college transfer them to other government-approved institutes.

Somsri Sornjingreed, 44, mother of Suparat Sornjingreed, a third-year nursing student, said she owed 450,000 baht after mortgaging 10 rai of family land and borrowing money from the Student Loan Fund to send her daughter to the college. The college has ruined the family's dream to see Ms Suparat graduate, the distraught mother said. She had hoped her daughter would be able to get a steady job and be the family breadwinner.

Ms Suparat said the Education Ministry must step in and solve the problem.

The college faces the prospect of being closed if it cannot convince appraisers that it has taken steps to improve its education standards.

Natthaya Srirapat, who graduated from the college last year, is working as an assistant nurse at a state hospital in the province. She told the Post she would lose her job if she did not have a professional certification by March 1.

The college has said it would find a solution to the problem by Feb 15.

Meanwhile, police said they were considering filing fraud charges against the Nakhon Ratchasima College executives.