Education expert Sompong Jitradub has urged the Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) to do more in its bid to purge bribery from state school admissions by scrapping all seven special entry conditions instead of only three.
“If all special conditions are not dropped, there will still be a loophole for school executives to demand bribes in the form of donations from parents during the admissions process. We need to get rid of all these special conditions to solve this chronic problem,” Mr Sompong told the Bangkok Post in an interview Tuesday.
The “seven special conditions” that Mr Sompong mentioned are part of Obec’s official admissions rules for state primary and secondary schools nationwide.
Under the rules, students who meet one of the conditions may receive preferential admission to the school of their choice.
They are: students under the patronage of donors of school land; students from poor or underprivileged families; students whose parents made sacrifices for victims of disasters; students whose parents are teachers or school personnel; students whose parents make frequent contributions to schools; students from allied schools and students who passed entrance exams but missed out due to admissions quotas.
These seven special cases are perceived as a significant cause of pae jia which allow unscrupulous school executives to demand kickback money from parents in return for granting admissions.
Bribery in exchange for places in state schools is so rife that the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) recommended the Education Ministry remove these criteria entirely from its admissions policy.
Last week, Obec followed the NACC’s recommendation by removing three of the special conditions. This new policy, however, will not be applied to upcoming admissions in March; it will become effective next year.
Under the new policy, the three conditions that will be removed are those for children whose parents make frequent contributions to schools; students from allied schools and students who passed an entrance exam but were rejected entry due to a cap on places.
Mr Sompong said he believes that Obec should have removed all seven conditions.
“If these privileges remain, dishonest school executives can exploit their quotas for these special cases by demanding bribes from parents,” he said.
Mr Sompong also said the government must force directors of state schools nationwide to declare their assets to avert possible graft. This would enable the government to monitor suspicious financial transactions in suspected incidents of “school place trading”.
“School place trading is now common knowledge among parents. It may not be called tea money directly, but many schools use the phrase ‘pledged donations for school development’ instead. The figure can be in the mid-five-figure range for less popular schools and can go up to six or seven figures for some prestigious schools,” Mr Sompong said.
Mana Nimitmongkol, director of the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand, said all donations to schools should be completely transparent and there should be no donation bidding wars.
“My recommendation is that there must be receipts for every donation. All donations must be posted on school noticeboards and websites, so the donators can check where the money has gone and how it was spent.”
He also urged the Education Ministry to work harder to bring all state schools up to a similar educational standard.
“The pae jia system is the byproduct of disparity. The quality gap between famous schools and normal schools is too wide. That’s why parents are willing to pay an exorbitant amount of money to purchase a place for their children at well-known schools,” he said.