YALA, Jan 30 – Eight schoolteachers have requested transfers from Yala’s Bunnang Sata district following continuing deadly attacks on educators there.
The move follows half of Ban Tanyong School’s 14 teachers submitting official transfer requests after one of their colleagues was killed last week.
Pitsanu Direkkul, acting director of the Office of Yala Primary Education Area Zone2, said that security measures implemented to protect teachers is satisfactory, but continuing attacks on teachers dampen teachers’ morale, particularly in insurgent active zones.
He said eight teachers requested transfers from Yala’s Bunnang Sata district as they are not confident of their personal safety. Their requests have been approved.
The latest attack on a teacher occurred last week when a gunman who falsely presented himself as a student’s father entered the school premises in Narathiwat and killed a Muslim teacher there, bringing the death toll of teachers from insurgency-related incidents to 158 since the renewed separatist violence erupted in early 2004.
