Army chief orders tighter security measures in Thai far South

BANGKOK, April 21 (TNA) - Thai Army Chief General Prayuth Chan O-cha has ordered stricter security measures in the Thai far south, as a precaution against approaching anniversaries of symbolic violent incidents. Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) Spokesman Colonel Banpod Poonpian told journalists that General Prayuth, in his capacity as the ISOC Deputy Director, made the order during a daily meeting at the Royal Thai Army headquarters in Bangkok on Monday to follow up national security updates, focused on those in the southernmost Thai region. The ISOC spokesman said the army commander-in-chief ordered all concerned agencies to closely monitor the situation in the Thai deep South and to continue implementing security measures assigned before the Songkran or Tradition Thai New Year Festival, with more intensified measures imposed in local urban areas, while operations of local security forces should also be adjusted in accordance with those of insurgents to effectively deal with violent incidents in the southern border Thai region. Meanwhile, Soonthareelak Wimutta, Director of Thetsaban 1 Rat Bamrung School in Su-ngai Kolok District of Narathiwat Province in the Thai far South, bordering Malaysia, plans to introduce an old but revised Thai-language teaching technique, as 60 per cent of local pupils in the first grade cannot currently read or write Thai. Soonthareelak noted that the old and revised teaching technique will be applied to kindergarteners and first-grade pupils in the next academic year. According to the director, the technique will introduce the Thai language from the level of word formation, instead of the present teaching technique, which focuses on complete words and proves to be inefficient. According to the director, she plans to increase the number of pupils who can read and write Thai by 10 per cent initially, saying that the old teaching technique will be especially introduced in three southern Thai border provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani for the benefits of local children. (TNA)