Cut in class hours on the backburner during revamp

THE OFFICE of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) is preparing to draw up new curricula for schools across the country.
However, unlike efforts for the curricula revamp during the past few years, these fresh efforts do not have a main goal of reducing students’ class hours.
“We have to determine the content of the curricula before we can decide on class-hour structure,” Obec secretary general Kamol Rodklai said yesterday.
Before the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) came to power in May, the Education Ministry had engaged in efforts to significantly reduce class hours so that students have more time to learn other skills from extra-curricular activities. The ministry then also pointed out that students in several other countries performed better academically even though they had less time in class.
At a press conference yesterday, Kamol did not mention those efforts. He only explained that it was time to draw up the new curricula because school-class content should respond to changing social conditions.
“Society has higher expectations of the country’s educational services,” he said, “Also, we need to update the content to boost students’ quality.”
Kamol said a subcommittee on academics and curricula development is working closely with Obec to lay down the principles and framework of the new curricula. Dr Art-ong Jumsai chairs this subcommittee.
He could not say at this point whether the new curricula would reduce class hours.
“But in drafting the new curricula, we will address problems reported during the implementation of the 2008 curricula such as too much homework,” he added.
On the educational front, Obec has also been responding to the NCPO’s policy for schools to teach History and Civic Duty as separate subjects.
Kamol said Obec was preparing to publish books on these subjects.
“We will also provide related training to 1,206 master teachers for secondary educational level classes in September and October,” he said.
He said History and Civic Duty could be taught as separate subjects from the second semester of this year.
Suchart Wongsuwan, who is in charge of preparing the Civic Duty subject for classes, said students in primary and junior secondary education level would be required to study Civic Duty for 20 hours per semester.
“For students in senior secondary educational level, they have to study the subject for 80 hours in three years,” he said.