Applications can be submitted from March 29 to April 4.

“There is a shortage of teachers in some fields. So there is no point complaining. You had better recommend solutions,” Teerakiat said yesterday.

He spoke up after several academics attacked the plan, arguing that teachers should only be recruited from teaching institutes that conduct five-year programmes, including one year of training.

The plan, which was introduced by the Office of Teachers and Education Personnel Commission and supported by Teerakiat, has offered successful applicants without teaching licences to teach first and take training courses to seek teaching licences later.

It is designed to attract capable people to the teaching profession, regardless of whether they are trained teachers.

Dr Amornwich Nakornthap, a prominent educator, complained yesterday that the plan was far from being a solution – but would be the cause of big problems that would soon emerge. “This plan would affect children across the country,” Amornwich said.

Asst Prof Athapol Anunthavo-rasakul, who teaches at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Education, said at a seminar that Thailand was going to be the first country in the world to allow people without teaching training to teach first and get training later.

“In other countries, where there is shortage of teachers in a particular field, capable people from the field may get teaching training and then apply for a teaching job. But what Thailand is going to do will be the other way around,” he said.

Dr Pavinee Sothayapetch, also a lecturer at the CU Faculty of Education, said it was not right to send persons without basic teaching background to walk into classrooms and conduct classes.

The faculty hosted the seminar to discuss the new rule, which was introduced earlier this month, and its possible ramifications.

“I can’t agree with the move,” Prof Sompong Jitradub said, “Graduates from the fiveyear education course are instilled with ethics and teaching philosophies,” Sompong said. “These qualities are not something anyone has and are important to teachers.”