The government's plan to purchase 1,000 new vans to serve students nationwide will not leave operators of song taew school trucks short of work, Education Minister Phongthep Thepkanchana says.
Mr Phongthep spoke yesterday after Chatchai Phu-aree, head of a club of operators of trucks with row seats, called song taew in Thai, said on Sunday that at least 800 song taew trucks would converge in protest on the Education Ministry if the government insisted on buying the vans.
Mr Chatchai had said he was afraid the purchase of the new vans could leave them short of work.
Mr Phongthep, however, said their fears were misplaced. "Our plan to buy 1,000 new vans to serve the policy of managing small schools will not affect your [song taew drivers'] work," he said.
Of the 1,000 new vans, 850 would be used for students whose small schools would be merged with bigger schools located far away, while 150 would serve students of small schools that are merged together, Mr Phongthep said.
Deputy Education Minister Sermsak Pongpanit, who supervises the van procurements, defended the transparency of the project.
At the 2014 Budget Bill debate last week in parliament, the Democrats said the 2.343 billion baht sought to buy the 12-seat vans was too high given the Budget Bureau's estimate that each 12-seat van cost about 1.232 million baht.
According to the estimate, the van budget should be 1.232 billion baht.
Mr Sermsak said the amount sought to purchase the vans is in fact 1.232 billion baht as per the bureau's estimate. The 2.343 billion figure was a typo.