OPINION

Tone-deaf schools

How are all industries being affected by this Covid crisis and yet international schools remain untouched (save a few) by pricing? In fact, the top-tier schools have increased their fees, a tone-deaf move in this pandemic for potentially cash-strapped parents to both pay and teach their children while paying full prices for a so-called education.

This goes in particular for the younger than 10 ages in which an often (working) parent must be on-hand to be a teacher's assistant and offer tech support.

The teachers have pulled it together beautifully and made the best of an untenable situation but the administrators should be doing some financial analysis on how to reduce fees, not increase them. And perhaps think outside the box on how to educate our children if technology were not so readily available to use as a crutch. Dynamic learning is not through a computer screen.

Re: "Eateries need more government aid," (Editorial, June 29).

The Thai government should follow what Singapore is doing: Instead of forbidding restaurants to receive sit-in customers, the city state limits the number of dine-in people to only two persons at a time during the Covid-19 outbreak -- and eases the number to five or more when the situation improves.

Re: "North Korean leader Kim 'emaciated', citizens heartbroken," (BP, June 28).

It can be no surprise that the loyal citizens of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) should be heartbroken and their eyes welling with tears at the sad news that the supremely "devoted, hardworking leader [of] the country" is suffering ill health from so long bearing the weight of his people's cares on his selfless shoulders. Indeed, "in a country where public discussion of the leader's health and personal life has always been off-limits" and any remotely negative or critical comment, however honest, accurate, well-founded, or nationally important is seriously criminal under law made up to suppress any possibility of domestic lawful opinion being well-informed or of any worth whatsoever, it is inevitable that the dear leader will be universally loved, respected, revered and admired by all.

Re: "Bizarre booze rules," (Postbag, June 22) and "Nothing will change" PostBag, (June 24).

In response to Ray Ban's and Ron Martin's bewilderment at Thailand's laws governing the hours during which alcohol can be sold, I can offer some insight. Many years ago, Bangkok saw a spate of gang fights between groups of students from rival vocational colleges. These invariably happened in the afternoon or occasionally in the morning.

The wowser faction of Thai society were quick to blame alcohol for fuelling these student confrontations and successfully lobbied to restrict the sale of all alcohol during these two time periods, i.e. before 11am (when students were on their way to school) and from 2 pm–5 pm (when students were on their way home). Why not just stop sales to students (who wear identifying uniforms), you may ask. The argument put forward was that some ill-intentioned adults might buy it for them. Since then, the laws have become chiselled in stone.