The increasing call to help heavily indebted teachers is a reflection of deep failure at so many levels. As the government rightly points out, teachers collectively have acted irresponsibly in accumulating debts totalling 418 billion baht from the special Government Savings Bank (GSB) fund. The teachers claim the government and its bank have encouraged borrowing. And critics are correct to note that the vast majority of the borrowings were mainly for personal enjoyment and buying consumer items.
The last point is vital to understanding the strictly unsympathetic government policy. The reasons given for the loans, unavailable to the general public, are 100% personal. They include buying homes and condos or purchasing high-priced vehicles. Teachers claimed they wanted loans to invest in the stock market or start a business. A startling common reason given for a loan was to repay previous debt. This is where irony supplements greed and avarice in the tragic tale of teacher debt. The GSB reports that thousands of teachers are currently failing to repay a loan taken out to pay back an earlier loan or installment transaction. Another way to put this is that classroom teachers, who grade their students either as pass or fail, have failed completely to learn their lessons.
The government, as indebted teachers now point out correctly, has played the enabler in this sad story. The GSB has a special fund, on government orders, that has billions of baht available to be given as loans to teachers. It is impossible for this or past governments to deny a role in teachers' debt. While the public at large must meet stringent terms including collateral for loans, teachers bypass such steps.
