The Thailand Teacher's Development Association yesterday demanded Education Minister Dapong Ratanasuwan provide debt refinancing packages, to prevent teachers from becoming swamped with debts which will eventually affect the students.
The association proposed the ministry combine formal and informal debts of teachers nationwide, and transfer the whole chunk to Krung Thai Bank, before arranging refinancing packages for all debt-stricken teachers, said association president Preecha Muangprom, speaking after meeting Gen Dapong.
In the refinance proposal, Mr Preecha said, the interest rate should be set at 4% a year and the installment payments should be extended up to 40 years. He said the problem would be solved within five years if the ministry follows the proposal. Teachers' outstanding loans across the country are estimated to have reached 1.2 trillion baht, he said.
Mr Preecha said teacher debt is an urgent problem which the government must solve because it could affect teachers' job performance and in turn affect their students.
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry has approved a move by the Government Savings Bank (GSB) to file lawsuits against debt-stricken teachers who fail to ask for debt refinancing packages by this week. The ministry last week approved limited debt refinancing for teachers which falls short of what the association is now demanding.
Teachers who fail to take up the packages, which include advice on spending money, face the prospect of legal action, which would result in their being blacklisted by the National Credit Bureau (NCB).
About 7,000 teachers have yet to contact the GSB for their packages, said education permanent secretary Kamchorn Tatiyakawee, speaking after a meeting with the GSB representatives yesterday.
Last week, the ministry said it was worried teachers' work would be affected after the GSB announced it would take legal action against about 13,000 teachers for defaulting on their loans, worth around 14 billion baht. However, since last week's announcement of limited help, about 5,000 teachers have asked for debt refinancing packages while about 1,000 teachers wrote off their debts, said Dr Kamchorn, adding about 7,000 teachers are left worrying.
Dr Kamchorn said the ministry is considering two financial sources -- a revolving fund and funeral-service fund -- to help teachers with formal debts. The first option is to allow debt-stricken teachers to borrow money from a revolving fund, of loans up to 200,000 baht. For the second option, the ministry may ask teachers to cut part of their payout from the funeral-service fund, which will usually be paid out when they die, to pay the GSB loans.