A primary school in Nakhon Phanom reportedly has only one teacher on duty and a yearly budget of 30,000 baht, and its director is calling on the Education Ministry to allocate more money to help improve the school's efficiency.
The school, located in Dong Chok village of Muang district, provides kindergarten to Grade 6 education. Currently, there are 19 students, mostly from farmer families.
Thanyalak Deechan, 23, who was hired as an assistant teacher in November, is the only teacher there, according to school director Suphamas Kuntangwattana.
She is responsible for teaching Grade 1 to Grade 3 students, Mr Suphamas said. Grade 4 to Grade 6 students are supervised by a state employee who has no education degree but was asked to help, he said. Meanwhile, the kindergarten section is attended to by the school's administrative assistant, he said.
Due to the shortage, classes are sometimes merged, and no faculty member can take a day off, Ms Thanyalak said.
The school was allocated a budget of 30,000 baht per year, according to Mr Suphamas.
He said that due to insufficient funds, the school had to seek help from many state agencies, including the Highways Department, the army and the police.
According to village chief Sunthorn Phuna, the school was built in 1941 on a plot of land donated by locals.
Mr Sunthorn also pointed out that the budget allocated to the school was insufficient to procure teaching equipment. So, most of the funds were from local donations, whereby the lunch budget was supported by Nong Yat municipality, he said.
Despite the school's predicament, Mr Suphamas thanked Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin for cancelling a 1999 cabinet resolution which required teachers to act as caretakers to safeguard school properties outside of school hours following an assault of a teacher in Chiang Rai last week.
Pol Lt Gen Achayon Kraithong, spokesperson for Royal Thai Police, said the Education Ministry has coordinated with the RTP in asking for police cooperation in arranging patrols for schools nationwide after the incident.