The Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) has dusted off its small school merger plan in at least 10,000 schools nationwide. Karoon Sakulpradit, Obec secretary-general, said Tuesday the plan has been on hold for several years after it faced opposition from locals. However, the equity issues which arose from students studying at small schools had not gone away. Karoon said many small schools still face a lack of educational resources and teachers, resulting in poor educational quality. The students would be better off if they could study at larger schools nearby, he said According to a recent survey, of the 30,816 Obec schools across the country, 15,577 are considered small with fewer than 120 students; 10,971 schools have fewer than 60 pupils Under the plan, some students from these small schools would be transferred to study at larger schools nearby, he said