The parent allegedly recorded a video of him paying the money to the director, which went viral on social media.

Karun said he had not received a formal report about this case but, upon reading news reports on it, he had assigned the director of the Secondary Educational Service Area Office 1 in Bangkok to set up a fact-finding committee to probe the case urgently.

A Obec lawyer will join the probe, he added.

“If the fact-finding finds the information in the news was true, I will assign another committee to launch a probe into serious disciplinary action against the official in question,” Karun said.

“I’m very serious about this problem because Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin has always instructed that there must be no cases of tea money demanding in exchange for acceptance to schools.”