Wijit Srisa-arn

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Wijit Srisa-arn (Thai: วิจิตร ศรีสอ้าน) is a former Thai politician and was appointed Minister of Education in 2006 by a military junta following a successful military coup. As Education Minister, he has cancelled several key Thai Rak Thai-government policies like Thailand's participation in the One Laptop Per Child program and plans to install broadband internet connections in all Thai schools.

1 Democrat MP
2 Minister of Education
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Democrat MP

Wijit was a Democrat MP following the 2001 general election which the Thai Rak Thai party won in a landslide. He became head of the Democrat Party’s committee on educational issues.^[1]

[edit] Minister of Education

In 19 September 2006, the Thai military overthrew the elected government in a coup. The junta appointed Surayud Chulanont as Prime Minister and Wijit Srisa-arn as Education Minister. Key policies Wijit enacted included:

The cancellation of Thailand's participation in the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program.^[2]
The cancellation of plans to install personal computers and broadband internet connections in every public and secondary school in Thailand.^[3]
Forcing 430 prestigious schools across the country to accept half of their students from the local neighborhood. All other schools would be required to accept all applicants; if applicants exceeded seats, a random draw would choose which applicants would be accepted.^[4]

Due to escalating violence in the South, all schools in Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat provinces were shut down indefinitely from 27 November 2006. Over 1,000 schools were closed.^[5]^[6]