Thai education minister faces protesting students

Round two of a debate between Thailand's education minister and high school students seeking radical reforms took place on Saturday, with a robust though mostly polite exchange of views but with no resolution.

What had been billed by the students as a debate with Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan was a rare example of an open conversation between a senior politician and the younger generation that is not seen much in Thai society.

The students, who have dubbed their group Bad Students in self-mocking humour, are demanding an end to harassment for their activities, abolition of outmoded draconian regulations and total reform of the educational system.

The two sides originally engaged on Aug. 19, when students gathered outside the ministry to voice their pent-up frustrations, emboldened to act by a wave of aggressive protesting being carried out by college students against the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.

While the government is struggling to placate them, the minister patiently endured around an hour of questioning, often accompanied by booing and shouted comments.

His questioners listed their grievances: failure to make schools comply with earlier orders to allow freedom of political expression; failure to end arbitrary punishments for violations of the dress and grooming codes; overlooking the use of banned physical punishments by some school teachers and administrators.

"What you said, I could just not do it", said Nataphol.

"But today I am ready to listen. I am ready to implement reasonable suggestions. I believe I can implement several of those ideas we discussed today."

Before he left the stage the students presented him with a tongue-in-cheek gift of standard textbooks with a cane on top.

"I hope we don't have to see these books and the cane in our educatIon system any longer", the presenter told him.

"There must be change in many aspects. It's not just about the curriculum but the attitude and the ideas of the system itself have to be changed", said one 16 year old, who attended the rally.

The high school pupils, who numbered 300 on Saturday, have adopted the symbols and tactics of the college student protestors, such as the three-fingered salute, borrowed from the movie "The Hunger Games".