Time to deliver
Re: "High school students to receive free tablets, laptops", (BP, Jan 30).
PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra should put things first and ensure everyone is working towards the same goals and timetable. If she fails those, then delivering the tablets will be for nought. In her policy statement, she noted that "children should receive an education that emphasises the development of scientific skills, technology, and critical thinking".
Her most welcome words merely stated the obvious: her aunt in 2012 began giving out 860,000 tablets to P1 students for presumably much the same goals. Since Paetongtarn's policy statement a quarter ago, the media haven't reported any progress in education. She's talked the talk; when will she walk her talk? For example, who chairs the curriculum revision committee? What are the committee's key performance indicators, milestones, and timetable? When will each province have at least 10 primary schools of the calibre of the university's sathits (demonstration schools), at least two secondary schools equal to Triam Udom, and a university the equivalent of Chula, Thammasat, Mahidol, etc? How and when will we get there?
You've talked the talk, PM. Now, please walk your talk.
Burin Kantabutra
Overfishing fears
Re: "Fishing change risks new yellow card", (BP, Feb 1).
Post journalist Apinya Wipatayotin has written a great article about the new government proposal to take a giant step backwards in regulating the Thai fishing industry.
Bancha Sukkaew, director-general of the Department of Fisheries, said the new bill, which allows a smaller net opening size, would enable the country to catch more fish, especially anchovies, which are used for animal feed and fish sauce. He added, "Anchovies have a lifespan of approximately one year. If they are not caught, they will die naturally, which is an economic loss." One would hope he understands that dying anchovies feed an entire marine ecosystem with high-quality nutrients and that overharvesting anchovies contributes significantly to destroying life in the Gulf of Thailand.
Perhaps placed on a table next to a large rubber stamp, the new legislation is now before the Senate. This is unfortunate because the amendment is primarily designed to lower the cost of fishmeal, a commodity essential to the commercial farming of shrimp and fish in Thailand. Most unnecessary because the commercial fish and shrimp farming industry worldwide has made great progress in eliminating fishmeal as a principal dietary ingredient, replacing it with plant-based alternative feed substitutes at reduced cost. Rather than incentivising the transition to environmentally sound fishmeal formulations, the government is taking the easy way out and doing so with utter disregard for the historically disastrous failures of this business-as-usual approach.
Michael Setter
Power price puzzle
Re: "PEA seeks public lights chat", (Business, Feb 3).
The article states: "Thailand's power tariff, which is used to calculate electricity bills, is 4.15 baht per kilowatt-hour (unit)." Having paid my electricity bill for January, I noted the amount was still calculated at 4.18 (actually 4.1873) baht per kilowatt-hour. Will the PEA and the government sort out a standard price?
Jaytee Korat
