BANGKOK (UCAN): A threat by Nataphol Teepsuwan, Thailand’s education minister, to take legal action against high school students who voice complaints about their schools and teachers has been panned as a heavy-handed attempt to silence dissent in a politically divided nation.
The statement was issued after the launch of a new website was launched on December 1 by student activists who have been engaged in a months-long campaign for wide-ranging education reforms. Students can leave comments about their experiences in school on the online platform.
“(The website) can cause problems in the future,” Nataphol claimed on a television show on December 2, adding that the website’s content could affect teachers and “may infringe on their rights” because complaints may violate privacy laws.
“I’ve asked the legal department to look into ways to close down the website,” he said. “I want them to think of legal consequences.”
Rights advocates, however, pointed out that the minister’s threat against outspoken students also violates young people’s freedom of speech and conscience.
“In Thailand, exposing abusive teachers is regarded as a worse crime than abusing students. Shame on education minister, Nataphol Teepsuwan, for doing nothing to stop the abuse of Thailand’s new generation,” Andrew MacGregor Marshall, a prominent British commentator on Thai affairs, noted in a social media post.
The website also serves as part of a youth-led campaign to allow students to decide whether they want to wear school uniforms or casual clothes to class.
The issue of compulsory uniforms at government-run schools has been at the forefront of a student-led reform movement, which seeks to do away with several obligatory practices that include restricted hairstyles.
In recent months, numerous female students have staged protests on campuses and streets against compulsory hairstyles that require them to keep their hair short.
The student activists say the rules impinge on their freedoms and can violate their personhood by stifling their individuality.
Their demands for freedom of choice in such matters have met with a backlash from the authorities, teachers and many conservative Thais, who see discipline in schools as key to social cohesion.
However, student activists counter that the regimented nature of education in Thailand only serves to bolster an autocratic regime that draws its inspiration from the repressive traditions of the Thai military, which remains in charge through a proxy government headed by former army chief, Prayut Chan-o-cha.
“We have to have short hair, we have to wear uniforms and we have to stand at attention every day,” Nui, an 18-year-old high school student at a well-known government-run school in Bangkok, said.
“It feels like the idea is not to help us become educated but to get us trained in how to be obedient,” she said.
Prayut has spoken out against any changes in school attire, insisting that students are better off wearing their uniforms.
“Students can be easily noticed if they are in their uniforms and fall into danger,” the Thai prime minister said on December 1, adding, “Uniforms also cost less money than casual outfits.”
Shortly after seizing power in a military coup in 2014, Prayut, who was then head of a repressive junta, issued his 12 National Values, which all high school students are required to memorise and recite regularly.
The rules instruct students to “maintain discipline,” “abide by the royal teachings” and “think of the greater good,” among other precepts.
Yet more and more Thai students appear to be chafing under such parochial expectations. “It’s all part of the brainwashing that goes on in Thai schools,” Nui said.
