Assistant Professor Athapol Anunthavorasakul, who teaches at the Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Education, said such a plan apparently focused on short-term gains but failed to take into account long-term investment in social development.

“Do not forget that although graduates from some academic fields may not have readymade jobs awaiting them, their knowledge can be applied in various other jobs,” he said.

Athapol said at first glance, philosophy and literature might not seem to have any market value.

“But at a deeper level, such knowledge is crucial when society needs logical answers and debates,” he said.

He pointed out that philosophy studies trained students in rational and analytical thinking.

He also argued that literature studies constituted cultural capital.

“Look at the financial value that the famous Harry Potter books generated,” he said.

Athapol was speaking in response to reports that Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha had instructed the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) to control academic fields that produced unemployed graduates and failed to respond to the labour market’s needs.

The instruction was issued reportedly after the NESDB presented a plan to develop human resources in the country’s higher-education sector or university lecturers between 2018 and 2037.

Athapol emphasised that the government could not just abandon the fields it believed did not respond to market demands.

“Universities have the duty to create and accumulate wisdom and intellectual knowledge. They are not designed to only produce labour,” he said.

Deputy Education Minister Dr Udom Kachintorn said the government did not plan to abandon the social sciences, but it had to prioritise the IT field for the time being.

“This is because we still lack adequate human resources in IT,” he explained.

However, he said the government could not force universities to focus just on IT fields. “But we will allocate funds to universities that actively respond to national goals first,” he said.

Public prosecutors based in Nakhon Phanom province have already decided to prosecute at least 10 civilian suspects in the case. Police are now waiting to hear whether the Regional Office 4 of public prosecutors will agree to arraign lawyer Tanat Suktolodpee as the 11th defendant, as the police investigation suggested he might have played a role in the alleged preparation of fake witnesses and evidence.

In 2013, the Supreme Court convicted then teacher Jomsap of hitting and killing an elderly cyclist with her pickup and fleeing the scene.

Although she was later released early on a royal pardon, Jomsap tried to overturn the conviction while publicly insisting on her innocence. Her claim gained credibility after a man named Sap Wapi claimed that he, and not Jomsap, was responsible for the fatal accident.

The Justice Ministry then actively helped her fight her case.

However, Sap later admitted that he lied, claiming responsibility for the fatal accident in the hope of getting paid by a friend of Jomsap. Last November, the Supreme Court rejected Jomsap’s request for a retrial and police began investigating the alleged perjury.

Provincial Police Region 4 deputy commander Pol Maj-General Tanasak Rittidejpaiboon said yesterday that in addition to the civilian suspects, police had also asked the National Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate seven officials of the Department of Special Investigation on suspicion that they might have helped the suspects provide fake evidence.

Pollution Control Department (PCD) on Thursday announced that the air pollution in Bangkok had already returned to below the city’s “safe standard” for particles sized at, or smaller than, 2.5 microns (PM2.5) thanks to the previous day’s downpour.

The department said that the rise in PM2.5 levels in Bangkok was a seasonal problem, which usually occurred during the season shift from winter to summer.

PCD Air Quality and Noise Management Division director Thalearngsak Petchsuwan said that the recent air pollution was related to very high levels of PM2.5 in Bangkok metropolitan area. They in turn resulted from the calm weather associated with the lack of wind during the change of seasons.

The PCD’s air quality monitoring station at Phaya Thai District reported that Thursday’s PM2.5 daily average level was at 14.06 micrograms per one cubic metre of air, which was greatly reduced from Wednesday’s record at 86.17 micrograms.

Thalearngsak explained that due to the lack of wind and sunshine in recent weeks, the air pollution generated from traffic and human activities in urban areas was trapped in the city and accumulated over time until reaching dangerous level.

However, he said that the air pollution will slowly resolve as the weather gets hotter and sunnier, in turn generating the wind needed to carry air pollution away from the city.

“This phenomenon occurs every year, but this year we faced an abnormally long period of calm wind conditions, so the people noticed the problem,” he said.

“We would like to encourage people to drive their private cars less and use public transport instead, as the main source of air pollution in Bangkok is from the heavy traffic.”

Meanwhile, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) also ordered all 50 districts in Bangkok to tackle air pollution by regularly cleaning the streets and sprinkling water into the air.

BMA also suggested those people who are vulnerable to air pollution stay indoors during this period. They also encouraged people to use public transport or ride a bike to help reduce polluting emissions.

Labour Rights Promotion Network Foundation director Sompong Srakaew said yesterday that even though human trafficking had largely been suppressed in Thailand, the authorities still have to intensify their operations against forced labour and protect workers’ rights to eradicate these crimes.

His remarks came after Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report, “Hidden Chains: Forced Labour and Rights Abuses in Thailand’s Fishing Industry”, on Tuesday.

In the report, HRW suggested that Thai authorities improve laws, strengthen measures and operations against violations of workers’ rights, and enforce proactive policies to protect the rights of migrant workers.

Sompong said he had noticed positive progress on efforts to tackle human trafficking in the Kingdom due to strict measures by the authorities. As a result, there had been no recent cases reported to his organisation that could be regarded as human trafficking.

He attributed this to the establishment of the Fishermen Centre, which had been operating for a year before it officially launched late last year.

“But, we received many cases of migrant workers’ rights violations such as unjust salary, improper working environment, and other employment problems.

“The authorities have done a good job to tackle human trafficking. However, I would like to suggest that they be even stricter on human trafficking suppression measures and ensure that migrant workers are protected throughout the entire system,” he said.

He also urged the government to amend related laws to provide more freedom for migrant workers to change their jobs and move freely within Thailand, and make it easier for them to be registered with the authorities. This would prevent them from being taken advantage of by the bad employers and agencies.

In related news, the police revealed that they had rescued more than 160 human-trafficking victims from fishing trawlers between May 2015 and last Thursday.

“Most victims were from Cambodia, Myanmar and Indonesia,” deputy national police commissioner Pol General Wirachai Songmetta said.

These people were initially promised factory jobs but lured into staying overnight on a boat. When they fell asleep, the boats headed out to sea, leaving them with no choice but to work on fishing trawlers instead, he said.

“Some victims were forced to work more than 20 hours a day,” Wirachai revealed.

He said police had arrested more than 100 suspected wrongdoers in the crackdown on illegal fishing and trafficking of humans working on fishing trawlers.

Between May 2015 and last Thursday, more than 40,000 fishing trawlers were found to have violated laws. Of them, about 9,000 trawlers have already been confiscated.

A total of 4,243 cases of illegal fishing and human trafficking were filed during the period.

Pol Lt-General Charuwat Waisaya, who heads the team against illegal fishing and human trafficking, said Thailand was firmly committed to fighting illegal fishing and had made the highest number of related arrests in Asia.

The proposed ban will be declared under Section 71 of the Emergency Decree on Fisheries 2015, and allow the Thai authorities to close loopholes used to capture wild seahorses for commercial gains or for fishing trawlers to stockpile incidental catches of seahorses to sell as an ingredient in Chinese medicine, she said. The ban – along with the plan to list seven species of seahorse as protected wildlife and the measures to increase the seahorse population in nature – would be presented to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to ensure Thailand would not again face trade barriers due to an illegal seahorse trade, Umaporn said. Trade in all species of seahorses is regulated under Appendix II of the CITES. Countries may issue export permits only if they can prove the trade isn’t harmful to wild seahorse populations. Thailand, had previously allowed the export of 10-15 tonnes of seahorses primarily to China, and faced international suspicion over whether that included seahorses captured in the wild. Thailand was removed in 2016 from the CITES list of countries under review regarding trade in seahorses after the country agreed to suspend trading seahorses with other countries. However Umaporn said some people might have smuggled seahorses into Thailand along with other goods via the border checkpoints on the Thai-Myanmar, Thai-Vietnam and Thai-Laos borders as there was still a high demand for it among Chinese medicine shops. She also admitted to a loophole that allowed continuing trade in seahorses because they were not yet protected species. Authorities are waiting for sufficient academic backing before declaring protection for seven species of seahorse wildlife under the Wild Animal Reservation and Protection Act 1992. The focus species include: Great Seahorse (Hippocampus kelloggi), Thorny Seahorse (Hippocampus histrix), Pygmy Seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti), and Common Seahorse (Hippocampus kuda). The issue of seahorse trading was brought into the limelight after the management of the Pattaya Floating Market earlier this week closed a shop that was found selling barbecued seahorses to foreign tourists, including those from China. On Monday, a photo of barbecued seahorses was posted by a Thai Facebook user with a question asking whether the product was legal, leading to an outcry from many other Facebook users. The photo showed that the shop was selling seahorses for Bt150 each. On Tuesday, Manas Meepong, managing director of the floating market, said he had ordered the shop to stop selling the seahorse and also cancelled its licence effective immediately. The shop was closed and a sign posted that it had been closed for violating the rules of the market.

Chatchai was speaking to reporters after he chaired a meeting of a sub-committee in charge of tacking the illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) at Government House.

The meeting was held in response to allegations from Human Rights Watch that Thai employers took advantage of migrant workers in the fishing industry by paying their salary very late.

Following the allegation, the Thai government decided that employers of fishing migrant workers must pay workers by crediting their bank accounts. The banking trail would demonstrate whether employers had paid their workers on time.

But this led to a concern of insufficient ATM machines in 22 provinces to meet the needs of fishing migrant workers.

Chatchai said the Labour Welfare and Protection Department was told to report its finding to the next IUU panel’s meeting on February 2.

After the next meeting, Chatchai will invite representatives of banks to seek their help to install additional ATM machines in the 22 provinces.

Chatchai said the ATM machines in the 22 provinces will also allow migrant workers to select from the languages of neighbouring countries. They will also receive training on how to use the machines, if needed, Chatchai added.

The two men, who were not named, were picked up for questioning in Pattani’s Khok Pho and Yarang districts as part of the investigation into Monday’s attack.

A bomb hidden in a motorcycle parked in front of a food stall in Pimonchai Market killed three people and injured 28 others.

The two suspects were grilled at 41st Ranger Task Force headquarters in Yala’s Raman district.

The source said the investigation had made good progress thanks to security camera recordings catching a pair of men fleeing the market on a motorcycle and tracking their escape route.

Several other people appear in the recordings to be serving as lookouts for the bombers.

The authorities were gathering evidence against those seen in the recordings and would summon them for questioning, the source added.

Migrant Working Group on Tuesday released a statement urging authorities to avoid publicising news of their clampdowns on migrant workers allegedly working in restricted professions. The group said publicising such news had resulted in anti-migrant worker sentiment among Thais.

In recent weeks, there has been growing concern among Thais that more migrant workers were now working as retailers after officers arrested migrant workers engaged in jobs reserved for Thais.

The group pointed out in their statement that this trend had intensified fear and hate of migrant workers among Thais. They urged the authorities to refrain from spreading xenophobic news reports and to also amend labour laws so that they aligned with the real employment needs of the Thai labour market.

“The entrepreneurs proposed that the Royal Decree Prescribing Occupations and Professions Prohibited for Foreign Workers BE 2522 (1979) should be taken as guidelines to prohibit migrant workers from undertaking certain jobs. But such prohibitions do not correspond to the labour demand at present, as migrant workers are needed in certain occupations shunned by their Thai counterparts,” the statement said.

“Based on the aforementioned information, the Migrant Working Group urges the government to stop spreading news about the crackdowns on migrant workers and promptly calls for a meeting of the Policy Committee to review the recommendations made by stakeholders concerning work prohibitions of migrant workers.”