Bt749m needed to address elephant attacks and damage caused

13 Sept 04:46 Key points summarised by AI

**Secures Major Funding**: The Elephant Conservation and Management Committee approved Bt749 million to combat wild elephant attacks and the extensive damage they inflict on rural communities.
**Addresses Escalating Conflict**: This significant funding aims to mitigate the rising human-elephant conflict, which has caused 18 deaths and 13 injuries since last October, following 39 fatalities in the previous fiscal year.
**Implements Comprehensive Measures**: The allocated money will finance critical initiatives including digging trenches and building barriers, growing edible plants within habitats, increasing manpower, setting up behavioral change centers, and developing elephant population control vaccines.
**Recognizes Funding Gap**: Department Director-General Atthaphon Charoenchansa highlighted that the substantial new allocation is essential, as the regular annual budget of Bt190 million is insufficient to address the scale of damage caused by elephants.

Examining Thailand’s four-part education revolution

Today 14:22 Key points summarised by AI

Thailand's Education Ministry is implementing a four-pronged strategy to address its students' below-average performance in PISA 2025 and tackle significant educational inequality.
The plan prioritizes closing performance gaps by increasing funding for small and low-income schools, overhauling the curriculum to foster critical thinking, and adopting a data-driven management system to reduce teacher workload.
Key initiatives include enhancing school safety, combating cyberbullying, and expanding mental health support through peer-to-peer networks, recognizing the severe impact of distress on academic performance.
An education expert advises verifying if PISA improvements stem from structural changes, advocating for a revived STEM curriculum with practical 'learn by doing' methods, and urging bureaucratic reform to link teacher evaluations to student development.