Education: The weak spot in all Thaksin regimes
Pheu Thai needs to drop the gimmicks and move to boost teacher standards
Amid the fast changing world and the challenges that comes with it, many people in the country – from parents to business leaders – are wondering if their children are getting the right kind of education needed to face these difficulties. It is really sad to say we have not seen any real, meaningful effort by the government to address this very important task. And this recently concluded Cabinet reshuffle is a testimony to this sad reality.
The fact Woravat Auapinyakul stayed at the helm of the Education Ministry for just five months shows that government is more serious about rewarding its people – Pheu Thai Party lackies waiting in line to be paid back for their contribution to the party’s victory – rather than lifting standards for our young.
Over this past decade, five administrations under the direct and indirect leadership of Thaksin Shinawatra have led the country. The post of the education ministry has always been given to Thaksin’s camp. Unfortunately, nothing has changed in a meaningful way. What we have witnessed over the years are short-term and short-sighted policies aimed at enhancing the government’s popularity.
Prior to coming to power in 2001, Thaksin’s now-defunct Thai Rak Thai Party came up with “One District, One Scholarship” project. The idea was to provide students from rural schools a greater chance to obtain scholarships to study overseas. Cultural orientation was not taken into consideration and one of the students sent abroad committed suicide.
The Lab School project, also introduced by Thaksin’s proxy, sounded interesting at first. But when it came to implementation and handing over the needed resources and technical assistance, many people began to have doubt the sincerity of the government.
There were growing complaints from headmasters/headmistresses in rural areas who had to even find the budget to maintain computers and IT infrastructure. Demands and expectations on school directors were ridiculously high. One director in Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok district killed herself because she struggled to live up to the expectations, not the mention find money for the scheme.
If anything, education has not been Thaksin’s favourite political turf. He made a wise choice by appointing Dr Kasem Wattanachai in 2001 as the first education minister shortly after coming into power. But it didn’t take long for Kasem to see the insincerity on Thaksin’s part and he decided to quit. Kasem was later appointed as a privy councillor. After he resigned, Thaksin decided to take over the post. That lasted for five months. Within the next 18 months or so, Thailand saw three different education ministers – Suwit Khunkitti, Pongpol Adireksarn and Adisai Bodharamik, respectively. But none of them are known as men of wisdom, rather people of cunning and experience in the tough, ugly world of politics.
Following the re-election victory in 2005, the post at the education ministry went to Adisai again but soon afterwards, it was passed on to Chaturon Chaisang, a man with a relatively better head on his shoulders than other Thaksin cronies previously appointed to the post.
Then there was the coup in September 2006 and dissolution of Thai Rak Thai and the birth of its proxy, the People Power Party (PPP), which won the election in December 2007. In line with past practice, People Power came up with populist policies that included high-speed Internet for schools and restructuring teachers’ debts.
After the court dissolved People Power, the Pheu Thai Party, the latest proxy for Thaksin, won a new mandate in July last year. The Pheu Thai-led government announced a plan to hand out computer tablets to all students and revive the One District One Scholarship scheme.
No one doubts the popularity of these initiatives, but it does not in any meaningful way address the shortcomings of our education system, or improve the quality of our teachers.
Until Thaksin governments can stop thinking about the ballot box and focus on real educational needs, one can be sure Thailand’s young people will only receive a very limited preparation for the challenges of tomorrow. The scary part is that the longer are stuck with a weak education system, the harder it will be to catch up to the rest of the world.
