January is an important month for our education system. The second Saturday of the month was designated as National Children's Day, followed by National Teacher Day, which falls on Jan 16 each year.
While National Children's Day is characterised by routine celebratory activities such as military displays by armed forces and the opening of the Government House for children's visits, National Teachers' Day has been the opposite.
Instead, it has become a day when our teachers gather to air their grievances and ask the government to help with policy or assistance.
This year was no different.
On Monday, tens of thousands of teachers wore black clothing at their places of work in their hometowns to support a bid led by teacher associations protesting the National Education Bill.
The protesting teachers claim the bill does not go far enough in including teachers in the decision-making process.
They also say the bill still includes executive orders issued by the coup-making National Council of Peace and Order (NCPO).
They further claim the NCPO's executive orders make education policy centralised and, through moves such as eliminating teachers' councils, they lessen the power of teachers.
They say that real education and the decision-making processes should belong to local communities and local teachers.
The bill, tabled by the Ministry of Education, also reduces financial compensation given to school staff.
The bill could be described as much-awaited legislation, since it has taken five years to draw up. Now it has been tabled in the Lower House for a second reading since last week.
The main content of the draft law has several good and innovative points, such as being pro-home school and advocating free education.
But the bill is not enough to help our teachers educate their students. The government and MPs need to listen to their concerns.
The nation's teachers face many other challenges, both in their own lives and in their workplaces.
Many of them face financial hardship.
It is reported that 80% of 900,000 teachers are indebted to the total of as much as 1.4 trillion baht.
Despite previous governments' efforts in trying to clear debts, the problem persists.
Another problem is that current education policy requires teachers to fill out a large number of administrative forms, many related to performance appraisals demanded by the central government and the Ministry of Education.
Some 84 days out of 200 school working days in a year on average, teachers are doing paperwork instead of spending time with their students.
In light of such challenges, the Move Forward Party (MFP) on Monday rose to the occasion by announcing a policy to address teachers' debts by restructuring debts and revising interest rates.
Another MFP campaign is "Returning Teachers to Students", which aims to reduce unnecessary paperwork so teachers can dedicate more time to their students.
In the upcoming general election, policies on education will attract attention, so it's hoped that parties will be able to present more innovative education policies that can help teachers and the nation's overall education system.
