End of Overworked Teachers: Akkhananth Announces Plan to Ease Teacher Burdens, Restore Teaching Time, with Clarity Statement Coming Next Month
Thailand's Deputy Education Minister Akkhananth Kannitinant announced a major initiative to reduce teacher workloads by consolidating overlapping school projects and eliminating redundant paperwork. The ministry plans to implement a 'one evaluation covering multiple programs' model to restore teaching time for educators who have been overwhelmed by administrative duties, with detailed implementation guidelines to be finalized by mid-May 2025.
At the second high-level meeting of the Education Ministry on May 14, 2025, Deputy Education Minister Akkhananth Kannitinant was tasked with leading discussions to review projects affecting schools and systematically reduce teacher workloads. Akkhananth stated that his priority is addressing teacher burden, a problem he personally volunteered to oversee after hearing consistent feedback from educators in the field who feel overwhelmed by redundant project documentation and want more time for teaching rather than paperwork assessments.
"I will urgently compile all projects from every department to consolidate those with similar objectives using a model of 'one evaluation covering multiple programs,'" Akkhananth explained. "For socially sensitive projects, we'll carefully plan communications to ensure smooth implementation and acceptance from all parties. Regarding the white school project that many teachers have raised concerns about, we cannot cancel it within this fiscal year's budget, but we will definitely address it in next year's budget."
"I take every teacher's voice seriously and want to show genuine commitment through concrete action, not just written policy," he continued. "We will send a clear signal to schools that the ministry will not operate as before. Whatever is redundant and can be eliminated, we will cut. Whatever can be integrated, we will consolidate—to reduce paperwork burden, restore happiness, and give teachers their time back to genuinely care for students in their classrooms."
The ministry also prepared to launch the "Center for the Protection of Rights and Freedoms" as an umbrella to comprehensively safeguard the rights, freedoms, safety, and remediation for both students and teachers across all dimensions. All departments have been ordered to integrate their work into a coordinated system with a revised direction to be completed by May 19.