The Equitable Education Fund will on Wednesday begin transferring state subsidies to the first batch of some 400,000 students from needy families across the country.
EEF president Prasarn Trairatvorakul said fund had developed an Information System for Equitable Education, or iSEE, which would allow the government to clearly see and monitor education inequality across the country.
It would enable the government to formulate policies across several agencies and address the problem more efficiently, so no needy child would be left without help.
The EEF president was speaking when Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha visited the EEF’s exhibition, "Opening the gate to opportunities to reduce education inequality’’, and downloaded the iSEE app to his iPad.
The software would enable Gen Prayut to see all the details - such as the number of poor students and the fund disbursements by the EEF - any place and any time, at his convenience, Mr Prasarn said
Supakorn Buasai, manager of the EEF, said as of Dec 21, a total of 397,493 students across the country would receive financial help. The fund was still awaiting the necessary documents for another 75,363 needy students from 416 schools. Another 6,655 schools had not yet submitted any details at all on the number of needy students to the EEF.
The EEF would begin transferring state subsidies to 397,493 students on Dec 26 and the process would be completed in seven days. The provinces with the highest number of poor students were Mae Hong Son, Tak, Narathiwat, Yala, Nan, Satun, Chiang Mai, Pattani, Nakhon Ratchasima and Maha Sarakham, Mr Supakorn said.
Earlier reports said the EEF would give 800-baht per head per semester to poor students studying at from Prathom Suka 1 to Mathayom Suksa 3 levels. About 600,000 students would be entitled to the fund’s financial help.