Internet coverage is the light at end of tunnel for Thai education  

I second the plan of the Thailand Education Deans Council to reduce the duration of teacher-education programmes from five to four years. The deans claim there is no point continuing to require five years of study given that Thai children’s scores in the International Student Assessment  (PISA) had not improved between 2000 and 2015. 
As noted in the report, many other countries produce good-quality teachers from three- or four-year training courses.
I suggest that instead of lengthening teacher training, the Education Ministry budget should be diverted to speeding up Internet coverage in rural and less developed areas. That boost would increase online education, which is a powerful tool that Thailand is under-utilising compared to other countries.
The focus on improving teacher quality by packing the existing five-year programme into four years is sound, but the deans failed to do their homework and back up their proposal with the strong evidence available – especially concerning the correlation between Internet coverage and academic scores.  
The combination of devoted young trainee teachers and the availability of online education support anywhere and anytime, could very well prove to be the magic bullet that cures the ills of Thai education.
Dirk Sumter