Blueprint created to steer vocational colleges following ‘historic’ power transfer

Relevant agencies met yesterday to clarify the order and set an initial action plan.

Ovec chief Chaiyapruek Serirak said the colleges would maintain their administration freedom and classes wouldn’t be affected. 

He said the order, published in the Royal Gazette on Friday and in effect since yesterday, was useful as it would force public and private vocational colleges to join together to cater to the country’s needs and promote a knowledge exchange and effective resource use. 

Ovec now has 886 vocational colleges under its supervision, covering 976,615 students – 425 public colleges with 674,113 students and 461 private colleges with 302,502 students.

The first phase of the action plan runs until the end of this month and will result in the transfer of Opec’s assets, budget and personnel linked to the private colleges to Ovec, Chaiyapruek said. 

He said he would propose that Education Minister Dapong Ratanasuwan sign a ministerial order for that transfer tomorrow. 

Chaiyapruek said during this time an initial batch of assets and 27 personnel would be transferred and overseen by his deputy. 

He said that when the task grows bigger he would propose a division within Ovec be established to handle the supervision of the colleges, while a related law amendment might be passed. For now, private vocational schools would be run in accordance with the Private School Act 2007.

In the second phase of the action plan in March and April, officials would work to ensure students graduating in this period will not have any problems. 

In the third phase starting in May, he said Ovec would work with colleges to recruit students for the 2016 academic year based on the ratio of vocational students to formal education students of 42 to 58 per cent.

He said Ovec would try to convince 7 per cent of Mathayom 3 graduates destined for the jobs in labour market to study at vocational colleges. 

The fourth phase would cover the 2017 fiscal year budget and the drawing up of long-term plans.

The Association of Private Technological and Vocational Educational Colleges of Thailand chairman, Jompong Mongkolvanich, who attended yesterday’s meeting, said this was a historic move for vocational education and he was confident it would boost vocational education efficiency. 

He said a meeting of the associations last September called for the transfer, as it believed doing so would elevate academic standards.