The hole at the heart of Thai child-development: missing parents

Lungstib, thanks for the warning. I was referring to my stepson, a Grade 7 student who was programmed with the “rote-learning software” in his primary years. This makes it difficult, but not impossible, to coax him in the direction of the four Cs – critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. It’s a challenge worth fighting for, and I’ll explain why.
An economist at the Thailand Development Research Institute recently offered an explanation of every issue that is preventing Thailand’s progress to a 21st-century economy/society (so-called 4.0 status). 
In “Reforming Thailand’s Education System: Where to Start?” (YouTube lecture) Dr Kirida Bhaopichitr explains the impact of the first 1,000 days of life on an individual’s ability to grow, learn and work. If the brain is not developed properly in this period, then it will be very difficult to develop after that. 
All available data on Thai students’ academic performance – PISA, O-Net, etc – show that those outside of Bangkok are much weaker. For example, the PISA tests from 2002-2012 showed 50 per cent of village students were functionally illiterate, compared to just 16 per cent in Bangkok. In the rural area where I live, average student scores are so low that Dr Kirida called it “almost lost” in Thailand 4.0 terms. 
A large proportion of children in rural areas spend practically all of their first 1,000 days minus the care and attention of their parents, who have been forced to migrate for work. Among them was my stepson, who was brought up in a so-called skipped generation household. Now, I am obliged to do whatever I can to fill the gaps, expanding his world and hopefully also his future prospects.
My mother used to say of the friends I would bring home, “I have to take better care of them, because they are not mine”. Hopefully, my stepson’s teachers also share that attitude. It’s one that Dr Kirida believes is crucial to Thailand’s development.
Dirk Sumter