New semester starts with intensified security measures in Thai far South

FAR SOUTH, THAILAND, November 3 (TNA) - Like those in all other Thai regions, schools in the violence-plagued Thai far South have been re-opened for the second semester of the present academic year amid heightened security measures provided for educational personnel, students and even the general public. Soldiers, police, administrators and defence volunteers have been mobilized to guard schools, their vicinities and routes between local communities and schools, particularly those in Narahitwat, Yala and Pattani, to protect teachers, students and parents who were traveling to schools for the first day of the new term on Monday morning. In Narathiwat, the special protection has covered 369 schools in 13 districts, while in Yala, local teachers said they felt more secured and had more confidence in their educational services and in Pattani, educational inspector-general Adinant Pakbara revealed that six local schools which were torched by suspected insurgents on October 12 were set to be re-opened for the new semester on November 5, as villagers have already helped build temporary buildings at the attacked schools and their students are now joining an academic competition in the province's Sai Buri District. Kamol Rodkhlai, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Education's Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), told reporters, meanwhile, that improved curricula on history and citizenship subjects were introduced in this school term, emphasizing on the teaching on the qualifications of good Thai citizens and loyalty to the three main institutions of the nation. (TNA)