Swastika gaffe shows why our country badly needs education reform
The incident in which a member of an all-girl pop band shamed our country yet again by wearing a T-shirt displaying the Nazi swastika shows that the majority of our country’s youth is still ignorant of world history. It also shows our government has been dragging its feet for too long on education reform.
The Straits Times newspaper in neighbouring Singapore pointed out that this was not the first time Thai youths have embarrassed their country by showing their ignorance of the barbaric cruelty of Hitler’s Nazi forces, which killed more than six million Jews during World War II, under the much-despised swastika symbol.
In 2011, a group of students from a Catholic school in Chiang Mai wore Nazi uniforms for a sports day parade, triggering red faces and a public apology from the school’s management.
Again, in 2013, one of Thailand’s most prestigious universities had to apologise after its students created a mural depicting Hitler during graduation celebrations in Bangkok.
The Thai government should reform the country’s education system now, and make it imperative that students study more world history. Our future generations must be more informed about situations in the outside world, not to show their ignorance time and again, as is the case nowadays.
Vint Chavala
Chiang Mai
