Teachers’ Day: Teachers in the Deep South just want peace
Every January 16 is Teachers’ Day and it is a holiday for both teachers and students.
As always on this day, speeches are delivered by government leaders to laud teachers of their worthiness to the society and to appreciate their dedication to the good of Thai students.
But all these sweet words hardly touch the plight of most teachers who can hardly make ends’ meet and are indebted if they do not have one or more extra jobs or other means to make extra income. Insufficient income from teaching’s job aside, teachers in the restive three southernmost provinces and some districts of Songkhla province have been facing another life-threatening problem – that is safety from indiscriminate attacks by southern militants.
Altogether 179 teachers have so far been killed for the past 11 years since the start of the insurgency war by a new breed of militants on January 4, 2004. Last year alone, seven teachers, five of them female, were killed.
One day ahead of Teachers’ Day on January 15, the Federation of Teachers in Three Southernmost Provinces huddled in a discussion with officers of the forward command of the Internal Security Operations Command’s 4th Region and concerned authorities on security for teachers. The federation has wanted the "Thung Yang Daeng" model, a model which uses popular support in the localities to help in protecting teachers, to be expanded to cover all high risk areas.
Federation chairman BoonsomThongsriprai emphasized the importance for teachers’ safety saying that if teachers are safe and have confidence in the security measures for their safety then they will be able to work more effectively and, as such, teaching quality will improve for the benefit of students.
Mr.Boonsom noted that every time a teacher was killed or injured, the incident would have a lot of psychological effect on all teachers in the restive region.
Besides safety problem, he mentioned moral boosting issue saying that the federation had pleaded without success different governments for a four million baht compensation fund for families of teachers killed by militants.
A Buddhist teacher who is teaching at a school in a "red zone" in Narathiwat told Isra news agency that she had to run gauntlet with the militants almost on daily basis by changing her travelling routes to school band back home.
She admitted that she had to stay in the province because she had no other choices being a teaching employee on contractual basis and not regarded as a permanent staff.
The teacher disclosed that sometimes there are just two hours of electricity in her house but she could stand the hardship. But she said that every time a teacher or a student was killed or wounded by militants she felt very demoralized.
She went on saying that her mother had asked her to quit the job and return home but she declined telling her mother that if she quit her students would be affected.
Asked what she wants most on Teachers’ Day, she said she just wanted peace to be restored and to hear more laughters, end of mutual distrust and fear.
Meanwhile a Muslim teacher in Rueso district of Narathiwat told Isra news agency that she would like to Education Ministry to ease restriction by allowing teachers who are not permanent staffs and who want to be out of the region to be able to do so as wished.
She also called on the government to help shore up the prices of rubber and other crops saying many teachers double as rubber tappers to make extra income.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Caption : Celebrate on Teachers's day in the Southern of Thailand