Kingdom already has English-training resources

At long last enlightenment has arrived at the Education Ministry. It is now recognised that the English language is indispensable for the conduct of everyday life and will be increasingly so for the foreseeable future. As a former diplomat and now an educator I have seen it coming for quite some time. But it was not until the advent of the Anand Panyarachun government in 1993 that liberalisation in international education took place. Countries with citizens who are well versed in English are all successful traders and investors all across the world. And with the globalisation of the world economy, it is only inevitable that English will become the universal language that nobody can ignore.

But I sincerely doubt if this injection of Bt100 million for some 1,500 teachers to brush up their English abroad will do the trick. English skills cannot be acquired overnight. It will take many years of diligence and hard work before you can come close to being a native speaker. Yet it is also a language that can be self-taught, which can be done in many ways. A lot of Thai people who worked in an English-language newspaper during my old days in journalism had never studied abroad but could write flawless English because they were at it every day. I won the scholarship to study in America because my English was already strong at the age of 15. And guess who was my teacher? Elvis Presley. In those days I moonlighted as a DJ and I had to translate his songs for my listeners or they would abandon me.

Had it not been for the fact the Asean Economic Community will come on stream in 2015 the realisation of the necessity to overhaul the education system would not have happened. It is almost always a case of “too little, too late” until somebody wakes us up. Of course, “too little, too late” is always better than none at all. But we need to set the priorities right.

Firstly, the so-called “teachers’ colleges” need to show that they produce good and effective teachers. Correcting the system from the inside, if one is serious enough, is easier than to waste our huge budget abroad and for no reason, when the IT revolution can really achieve our purposes at home much more cheaply.

Secondly, a universal standard of quality must be set up and applied to state and private universities alike. Education should be for the public and not commercial interests. I believe what we have in Thailand are mostly teaching universities while those in the West are focused on research. That is not right, and it is probably one of the many reasons that only three Thai universities are listed on Asia’s top 100 universities and all three are in the second tier.

Finally, if a good seed is well-planted, it will grow into a solid tree and yield a lot of fruit. The most crucial period in everyone’s life, I think, is his or her formative years. Schools are second only to parents, as we Thais tend to believe. 

I see no reason why the Education Ministry should not use the international schools, colleges and universities that exist here as the training ground instead of sending them abroad. It will be much cheaper. The liberalisation of international education in Thailand has as its purpose making us the “hub of international education” of this region. We have some 90 institutions that can cooperate and help, if only are we asked. Summer is approaching and most international schools have intensive English courses along with others that will fit this need. But we are not asked – so far, at least.

Dr Prachyadavi Tavedikul

American School of Bangkok