The Ministry of Education is drafting two sub-decrees on private educational institutions aimed at improving regulation of the nation’s vast body of private schools.
The sub-decree on Organization and Management of Private Schools and sub-decree on Categorization of Private Schools have been sent to a range of institutions for input before the ministry finalizes the drafts and sends them to the Council of Ministers, said Sorn Senghok, director of the legislation department of the Ministry of Education.
“We are collecting comments from private schools and higher educational institutions. We will put all the comments together and see what we can do with them,” he said, adding that the responses are expected by June 20.
Among the goals of the sub-decrees is to set rules governing the number of students who can be enrolled in an institution based on size and staff numbers, he said.
“For example, if its size is 1,991 square meters, a school will be allowed to have only 150 students,” he said. “If the owners want more students in schools, the schools are required to multiple the size to three or four times respectively.
“There have been some universities that have only one building, and it is called a university. Also there are schools that have big space but don’t have enough human resources,” he said.
The draft also requires schools to leave a certain amount of money with the Education Ministry in case the heads go bankrupt and flee.
“Before, there were school owners running away after collecting money from students,” he said.
The sub-decrees will also give the ministry more leeway to organize and label schools according to size and student population.
“School will be told to be labeled and called high school or kindergarten depending on their missions,” he said.
