The Thai cabinet approved Education Ministry plans to provide 600 scholarships for graduates majoring in languages other than English to undergo teacher training in countries where those languages are the mother tongue.

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Phongthep Thepkanchana said the 78-million-baht project aimed to solve a shortage of state teachers with a "second" foreign language.

Mr Phongthep said the ministry will award scholarships to 200 graduates in Japanese, 140 in Korean, 60 in French, 40 in German, 40 in Spanish, 25 in Vietnamese, 25 in Burmese, 25 in Khmer, 25 in Bahasa Indonesian/Malay, and 20 in Russian. The project will start next year and run until 2018.

The ministry aims to give about 150 scholarships each year to those who pass the selection test. They will undergo language skills and teacher training by native speakers of each foreign language.

"It will help produce more teachers in second foreign languages aside from English, which is taught here as our first foreign language," he said.

Graduates will be appointed as state teachers in schools under the Office of the Basic Education Commission.

Reports Bangkok Post