Yingluck to visit Pattani Thursday

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will travel to Pattani province in the far South on Thursday for meetings with teachers and other groups.

Ms Yingluck announced the trip on Wednesday after attending a meeting of the committee for implementing policies and strategies for solving problems in the deep South.
She will be accompanied by Education Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana.
Ms Yingluck said the meeting stressed the need for all agencies to integrate their work to make sure they go in the same direction.
The meeting also discussed allocation of budgets to troubled areas to better meet the requirements of the local people.
The prime minister said the government was of the opinion the ongoing problems were mainly the result of insufficient manpower and equipment.
To solve this problem, it had approved an increase in the size of the police force in the restive region.  However, new police recruits were still undergoing training in the use of weapons to enable them to go both on the defensive and offensive.
She said the government had taken for consideration a proposal by teachers from the southern border provinces for the setting up of a task force to specifically to provide security for teachers.
Ms Yingluck said she would travel to Pattani tomorrow to meet teachers and other people and get first-hand information about their problems.
The Confederation of Tachers of Southern Border Provinces resolved on Wednesday that all schools in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat will close on Dec 13-14, Thursday and Friday, for an assessment of the situation, after two more teachers were slain in a broad daylight attack by militants in Pattani's Mayo district on Tuesday.
Boonsom Thongsriplai, the confederation chairman, today called an urgent meeting of confederation committee members and administrators of 10 education zones in the three provinces to discuss the latest attack on teachers in Mayo district.
The effectiveness of the security forces and the security measures being taken was discussed at the meeting.
It was concluded that personnel in the field of education were still a weak target at high risk of attack. Therefore, special security measures were needed. These measures must be bases on three principles:
1. Teachers need a guarantee of their safety.  Teachers, both Muslim and Buddhist, were now not sure of their safety and dare not go to school.
2. Education quality must not be compromised.
3. Teachers must adhere to the principle of co-existence.  Those who still survive must think how best to help and take care of each another.
The meeting passed the following resolutions:
1. All state schools in the three provinces will be closed for two days, on Dec 13-14, to allow security agencies to evaluate their effectiveness in providikng security for teachers and finding those responsible for attacks. Security agencies are required to propose a security plan for teachers to the confederation on Dec 17.
2. The schools will prepare a memorandum of understanding with security forces in their localities to identify shortcomings of all concerned.
3. Administrators of education zones are to consider moving teachers at high risk, be they Muslim or Buddhist, to stay together at a safe location.
4. During the two days of the school closure, a committee set up by the confederation is to hold talks with security forces on measures for teachers' security in the future.
5. All education zones in the three provinces are to hold a meeting of teachers on Dec 14, starting at 9am, to explain to them the moves being taken.
6. If all demands to be raised with security forces are met, the schools will re-open on Dec 17.  If not, the confederation will consider what to be do next.

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