The Student Loan Fund (SLF) has deferred seizing the assets of a woman school director in Kamphaeng Phet province who acted as a guarantor for 60 students seeking loans after it learned that at least 21 of the students failed to repay their debts.
SLF manager Chainarong Kajchapanan said the postponement was meant to ease the plight of Wipha Banyen, who is facing a number of lawsuits and court orders to have her house and land seized.
That happened because 21 students who she guaranteed from 1989-1999 failed to make their repayments.
Mr Chainarong said the office has traced all 21 and found that none have assets to service their debts. He said Ms Wipha must eventually be held liable.
As of now she has reportedly spent nearly 100,000 baht of her own money to repay four of the defaulted loans in a bid to keep her house and land.
The latest court order to seize her property, worth a total of 1.6 million baht, came last week. She has to cough up 300,000 baht to avoid their repossession.
Ms Wipha held a press conference on Tuesday at a hotel in Pathum Thani's Klong Luang district during which she relayed her plight and asked government agencies to help her get out of debts she did not cause.
"I taught my students to do good deeds and hoped they would be socially responsible after they finished their studies. But what I received in return was different," she said with tears welling up.
"I want my students whose loans I guaranteed to know the heavy burden I'm shouldering. It is my hope that those who are now employed will help ease that burden. I don't know the legal execution procedures for seizing my assets," she said.
Unless the borrowers repay, the interest will keep increasing, she said. Her house and land were passed on to her from her parents.
She said she also tracked down the parents of 21 students and found they are all more or less destitute.
"They didn't have any assets they could sell to repay the debt I now owe," she said.
Ms Wipha said later that two of her former students contacted her after the press conference and promised to help out.
"As their [former] teacher, I never get angry with any of them and still wish them the utmost success in life," she said. "I would rather chat to them face to face than sue them."
Since 1996 the SLF has lent 570 billion baht to 5.4 million students. About 800,000 have repaid them in full. Another 50,000 have either died, become disabled or were assigned to the non-performing loan group.
- See also: Teacher appeals to ex-students' decency