“We have already delivered tangible guidelines for the education sector,” ICER president Professor Charas Suwanwela said ahead of his committee’s two-year tenure ending on May 31. The panel has suggested legislation including a National Education Bill, Equitable Education Fund Act and Early Childhood Act.

“We have also identified areas for educational innovation,” Charas said.

ICER was established two years ago to lead education reform efforts. It’s widely accepted that reform is badly needed in Thai schooling. The quality of education has shown little improvement despite more resources and bigger budgets been allocated.

“Over the past few decades many countries have surpassed Thailand in terms of education quality. This trend is unacceptable,” Charas said.

He hopes the committee’s guidelines for reform will improve the sector in the next four or five years.

Charas, preparing to pass on the torch later this week, emphasised that the new government will have to pay attention to problems in education and actively pursue solutions.

“Rote learning prevails in the schools,” he said, and it’s resulted in Thai youngsters scoring below average in tests conducted as part of the Programme for International Student Assessment and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.

Charas pointed out that graduates of Thai vocational schooled were also poorly skilled. “And Thailand’s higher-education institutes can’t compete at the international level either.”

He doesn’t see the greater resources devoted to education translating into better quality, and blames the failure of erroneous attitudes and perspectives.

“Too many Thais still still believe college degrees are more important than individual competency,” he said. “Society also tends to think its the state’s duty alone to provide quality education, while in reality everybody should be contributing.”

Dr Jiruth Sriratanaban, who chairs an ad-hoc ICER committee that formulated the National Education Bill, said ICER aimed to reduce inequality in education and boost competitiveness.

“The Equitable Education Fund has already started delivering support to children in need,” he said.

The fund’s administrators have been working closely with the Office of Basic Education Commission since late last year to provide additional financing to students who might have to drop out of school because their families can’t afford it.

Jiruth said the Early Childhood Act promised to ensure that relevant ministries integrate their efforts to provide good care to children from a young age.

“I believe tangible results will become visible soon,” he said, adding that ICER had conceived many good initiatives but was unable to complete them before its tenure elapsed.

“So we hope relevant parties will support these initiatives in the future,” he said.

Jiruth said citizens in general could contribute to school reform by closely monitoring the state agencies and organisations involved in the process.

HIGHLY FLAMMABLE toxic chemicals that were not declared were found inside the burnt cargo at Laem Chabang Seaport in Chon Buri province, the Thailand Port Auth- ority disclosed.

After the fire broke out onboard the South Korean ship KMTC Hongkong while docking at Laem Chabang Seaport on Saturday morning, Port Authority director Kamolsak Phromprayoon revealed yesterday that 18 out of 35 remaining cargo containers on the ship held calcium hypochlorite and chlorinated paraffin wax.

These are not only highly toxic to human health and environment, but also very flammable and can ignite by themselves.

Kamolsak said after a lot of effort, the port officers successfully put out the fire late on Saturday. The investigation team was sent yesterday morning to inspect the damage at the scene.

The inspection team found calcium hypochlorite in 13 cargos and chlorinated paraffin wax in five other cargos, so it could be concluded that the ignition of these toxic chemicals is the most plausible cause of fire.

A preliminary report on Saturday had said there were no toxic chemicals onboard and the cargo only contained dolls. He said the owners of the shipments had not declared these toxic chemicals to the Thai Customs Office, so the officers did not know what was inside the cargo.

“Generally, every shipment of toxic chemicals, including transferring of shipment, has to be declared before they enter our ports. But as the ship’s company had not declared these toxic chemicals, it would be the duty of the shipping company to claim the damage from the shipment’s owners,” Kamolsak said.

As the fire was caused by the burning of chemicals, the nearby communities around Laem Chabang Seaport had earlier reported on Saturday that they suffered from noxious smoke and acidic ashes raining down over their villages, which triggered the evacuation of many communities around the seaport.

The Pollution Control Department (PCD) announced that the threat from hazardous air pollution caused by the burning of chemicals had receded to safe levels.

Air quality measured inside Laem Chabang Seaport yesterday morning found the level of Volatile Organic Compounds, formaldehyde and chlorine gas in the air were all lowered to within the safe limits.

However, as some of the water and foam, used for extinguishing the fire, had leaked into the sea the PCD has already coordinated with the Thailand Port Authority to place floating booms around the area to prevent further chemical contamination in the sea.

The officers of the PCD and the Marine and Coastal Resources Department also jointly took seawater samples for examination in a lab and monitor the chemical leakage into the sea.

Meanwhile, Somnuck Jongmeewasin, a leading environmental expert of EEC Watch, said the incident showed that the Thailand Port Authority had completely failed to handle the situation by withholding critical information about the chemicals inside the ship. He said this had caused preventable harm to the local people and their own officers.

“As we have watched the news from yesterday, we were all very certain that there must be chemicals in the ship and the Thailand Port Authority only provided us with a very wide description of the chemicals. So, both firefighting officers at the scene, the local people and medical staff treating the injured people did not know what they were really dealing with,” Somnuck said.

“This lack of information contributed to improper protection against chemical exposure for the officers at the site, danger to people around the seaport, and made it harder for medical personnel to treat the injured people.”

He also pointed out that the lack of clear information also led to more problems, as officers had used water to put out the fire. They did not know that there was calcium hypochlorite, which becomes extremely acidic when it reacts with water, on the ship.

“The Thailand Port Authority needs to heighten surveillance of every shipment that passes through its seaports, or else we could suffer from a deadly chemical blast, like what happened in Tianjin port in China, in the future,” he cautioned.

The tragedy occurred despite determined efforts by public groups and state agencies to assist people in the same predicament.

Wanna Kaewchat of the Habitat Development for Humanity Foundation said at the weekend that Wannakul Saikhet had eked out a living scavenging and doing odd jobs in Sila tambon, Muang Khon Kaen.

Wannakul was born in Khon Kaen but her Thai parents failed to apply for a birth certificate.

As an adult, Wannakul had several times applied for nationality but was too poor to afford the Bt8,000 cost of the required DNA verification test.

“Bt8,000 is a huge amount for underprivileged people – they can barely afford their daily living expenses,” Wanna said, urging the authorities to do more to help the khon thai rai sit – a term for people of Thai ethnicity who are not officially Thai nationals and thus lack basic rights.

“It was Wannakul’s dream to have a Thai ID card and access to the Bt30 universal healthcare scheme so that she wouldn’t have to spend so much money when she got sick,” Wanna said. “But she died just two months after the DNA test results came in.”

Treatments for the chronic tuberculosis afflicting Wannakul in recent years cost her Bt600-Bt1,000 a month and sometimes she had to rely on the charity of hospital directors.

But, unable to afford the steady ration of medication that the Bt30 healthcare plan would have provided, she died in late April.

Wannakul had only in February been given state aid to undergo the DNA test. She was in the process of applying for an ID card when she died.

The foundation, working with the Khon Kaen Homeless People Network on various projects, learned about Wannakul’s plight.

In response to a June 2018 survey of khon thai rai sit in Khon Kaen, the National Health Security Office and the ministries of Interior, Justice and Social Development and Human Security began providing such people aid in proving their Thai identity, including a free DNA test.

That’s what gave Wannakul a chance to prove her identity, although Wanna said her claim was easier to confirm than most since she’d lived locally for so long and had siblings to testify to their relationship.

Wannakul’s case was one among many, Wanna said. Another woman, Ai Waseng of Bangkok’s Sai Mai district, was also born in Thailand but had no birth certificate. Nationality was granted her in 2017, when she was 65, and she died a few months later.

Wanna said the foundation’s 2018 survey documented 700 homeless people across the country, of whom 110 were categorised as khon thai rai sit. It worked with the authorities to help them, and 15 in that group have received ID cards so far.

The foundation and its partners have assisted 70 homeless people in securing ID cards in the past two years, Wanna said.

Efforts continue to establish a fund to cover medical expenses for khon thai rai sit while they wait for their Thai identity to be confirmed, she said.

In the meantime the Social Development Ministry and hospitals have been shouldering on average Bt10 million a year to cover their medical expenses.

He was rushed to hospital early in the morning when he did not get up at his usual time of 5 am, according to a source close to him.

Medical personnel at Phramongkutklao Hospital spent about three hours trying to resuscitate Prem but failed. He passed away at around 8am.

Prem’s aides at his Sisao Thewet residence said that the former premier had shown no signs of any serious health problem before going to bed on Saturday night.

General Prem’s royally-sponsored bathing rite is scheduled for 6pm on Monday at Benchamabophit Temple, his family said.

The ceremony will be presided over by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.

The elderly statesman had served as president of the Privy Council during the reigns of HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej as well the current monarch, HM King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Prem was born on August 26, 1920, in the southern province of Songkhla. He joined a cavalry unit of the Royal Thai Army after completing military school and rose to the position of Army commander-in-chief.

He was Thailand’s 16th prime minister, serving three terms from 1980 to 1988. Later, Prem was appointed a Privy Council member in August 1988. He became the president of the royal advisers in September 1998.