Thailand: legalized bribery in schools?
Thai students raise their arms during a campaign for the International day for the Eradication of Poverty in front of the United Nations headquarters in Bangkok, 17 October 2007.
How do you eradicate the scourge of parents forking over cash to schools to buy better treatment for their kids?
Legalize it.
That's how Thailand's education minister, Suchart Tadathamrongvej, hopes to do it at least.
Under a pending policy, any school that feels underfunded by the nation's education ministry, he said, could feel free to amass "donations" — not bribes — from generous parents.
Schools could even "call for donations from parents and open separate classrooms for their children," said Suchart, according to The Nation. The minister has previously proclaimed that these donations — not bribes! — will "reduce government burden," the Bangkok Post reports.
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