Learning two old lessons could save Thailand’s failing education system

The number of the Education Ministry projects initiated this year is impressive – perhaps driven by the desperate realisation this could be Thailand’s last chance to escape the middle-income trap.
Two lessons from the past that must be urgently seized if we are to achieve that goal were offered by a political scientist in 2009 and the education minister four years earlier. 
Associate Professor Prathoomporn Vajarasthira lectured at Chulalongkorn University and several other institutes around the country. So she was in a perfect position to identify the weak spots in our education system when she was interviewed by ChiangMai Citylife magazine in 2009. Prathoomporn was also an award-winning novelist and, as one of the liveliest minds in Thai education, was quick to offer possible solutions. 
 Asked “what is wrong with the system?” she pulled no punches. 
“To start with, the majority of teachers in Thailand are substandard,” she shot back, before offering a damning picture:
“In the view of society, teachers are secondary professionals, and this is reflected in their pay, which is pittance. If you look at statistics, it is generally the kids in the third or fourth quartile of grades who graduate to become teachers. Good students do not become teachers.” 
I was sad to hear recently that Prof Prathoomporn passed away about five years ago – a great loss for Thai education. 
In 2005, Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang announced plans to cut down rote learning in favour of more reading and writing in the Thai curriculum. 
He was ahead of his time – “reading” is the major focus of this year’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2018).  
“Chaturon said Thai-language teaching needed to undergo a radical change since children were not good at their mother tongue,” stated a contemporary report. “He proposed less rote learning of the structure and more focus on reading and writing. He believed more enjoyable learning activities improve students’ skills. ‘I don’t mean that all schools must quit teaching structure but I’d like children to start learning less by rote. With more writing, children will automatically develop an understanding of the structure,’ Chaturon said.”
Dirk Sumter