The Education Ministry is looking at ways to cut back the level of debt among teachers, which currently runs at a staggering 1.4 trillion baht.
Education Minister Treenuch Thienthong said yesterday Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has assigned Deputy Prime Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow to oversee alleviation measures.
At least four ideas have been floated, with Ms Treenuch calling the issue "socially delicate".
The Education Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the Bank of Thailand and the Office of the Basic Education Commission are among agencies represented in a working group tasked with integrating the plan to assist teachers.
The education minister said she has appointed her adviser, Suthichai Charoonnet, to take the lead in examining the proposals and conceded the issue needs an in-depth study before any action can be taken.
"We've found that teachers and education officials across the country have accumulated over 1.4 trillion baht of debts, most of which is owed to the teachers' savings cooperatives, the Government Savings Bank and other financial institutions," she said.
The first step would be to reduce interest rates charged, particularly by the savings cooperatives which are the teachers' biggest creditors.
Negotiations will soon begin, focusing on the fact that teachers, who are regarded by virtue of their profession as customers with good credit ratings, should not face such high rates.
The minister said some cooperatives borrowed from commercial banks to re-lend to teachers at high interest rates to make profits.
One suggestion that Mr Suthichai's working team will consider could be to refinance the debts and transfer them to commercial banks, said Ms Treenuch.