>> The Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School (AFAPS) has relaxed some of its regulations to ease pressures felt by first and second year students who find the life of a cadet unfitting and want to drop out.
Maj Gen Kanokpong Channual, director of the AFAPS, was commenting during an open house activity at the pre-cadet school recently.
The mysterious death of Pakapong "Moei" Tanyakan, 18, a first-year student at AFAPS, has stirred controversy over the school's system of maintaining student discipline.
The student's family raised questions about suspected physical assault but a military-run committee which looked into the matter concluded the death was caused by sudden heart failure and not assault.
"We are used to maintaining military-style treatment of new students, right from the beginning," he said.
"But we've made changes to our approach [in maintaining military discipline] and forged a closer feeling of brotherhood among the students at the school," said Maj Gen Kanokpong.
New students are now required to undergo an attitude test to find out if they are genuinely determined to study at the AFAPS. In some cases, students enrolled at the school to please their parents, he said.
Meanwhile, other students may only have followed their peers in choosing to study at the AFAPS, he said.
That explains why it is crucial to test students' attitude towards the training system, which some critics have branded as being excessively severe.
Each first-year student now has a second-year senior assigned to take care of him and look out of his welfare while studying at the school, he said.
Moreover, the school has now adopted a new system in which new students may resign from the school without having to pay any compensation if they are not happy with the study and the training programme.
However, they must quit within the first month of admission or pay a penalty, he said.
If students find themselves unable to withstand the training system after continuing to study at the school for more than one month from the school's opening, he will be fined 100,000 baht if he resigns within the first year and 200,000 baht in the second year, he said.
After two years the fine will go up to 250,000 baht, said Maj Gen Kanokpong.
One military officer will also be assigned to supervise 40 to 50 students, he said.