There's been plenty of talk, but is kingdom nearly ready for the AEC?

The list of seminars is running long. Indeed, seminars on the AEC are now held almost every single day. 

The seminars may be useful in making teachers and even young students aware of the AEC. They now know that the AEC will bring Southeast Asian nations closer than ever through many initiatives. People will move around the region more conveniently – but have the seminars tackled the weak points in Thai preparations for productive membership within the AEC?

When the AEC is established, Thais at the very least should be fluent in English and IT-savvy so as to stay competitive. 

According to a researcher of Chulalongkorn University's College of Population Studies, Thais’ lack of foreign-language skills is an obvious major obstacle compared, for example, to people from Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Assoc Prof Patcharawalai Wongboonsin raised the issue at a seminar held as part of a Future of Thai Education symposium, at the Impact Arena Muang Thong Thani.

Boonlert Theeratrakul, director of the labour market research division at the Department of Labour, said a survey found many Thai workers lacked English, IT and numerical skills.

"So, this makes it really hard for them to compete in Asean," he said.

Patcharawalai urged Thai authorities to prepare Thai students for the future.

At a recent seminar, Nattachat Charuchinda, senior executive vice-president of corporate strategy at the PTT Public Company, said Thais’ command of English reflected how Thailand’s education sector is not yet ready for the AEC. 

Many private schools have now launched international or bilingual programmes for their students. While such moves will give a good command of English to many children, the majority will not be able to afford such expensive programmes. 

In other words, most students will still find it hard to communicate in English. 

The English Speaking Year project, which was launched by the previous education minister, has not yet provided any concrete results. 

To date, only the well-equipped schools for children of wealthy families have demonstrated solid preparations to efficiently guide their students towards the AEC. 

On IT skills, the government’s One Tablet Per Child (Otep) policy may be touted as a means to familiarise students with technology. However, even if this project really works, it will benefit young children first because the tablets will be handed out to Prathom 1 students in the upcoming semester while older students will have to wait. Given that the AEC will materialise in the next three years, how will the fresh graduates and people working in the seven professions affected by the free flow of labour cope?

At the higher-educational institutes, programmes are adjusted but just with minor changes. It remains unclear whether the changes will be adequate in helping Thais who have to walk into the AEC.

At this point, most universities seem more interested in tapping into the market of other Asean nations. They are keen on attracting students from neighbouring countries. 

If the educational institutes in Thailand do not make more effort in preparing their students well for the AEC, the country will lose out in the end.

Quality education is the key for quality human resources, which is the key for the country’s development. 

When Thailand comes to developing itself within the AEC context, education must also provide its people with necessary skills like English plus IT knowledge. On foreign languages, schools and universities should extend to the languages used by neighbouring countries because Thais in the future will have to communicate more with peoples from other Asean nations. Schools in border areas should provide classes in neighbouring countries’ languages – Burmese, Cambodian or others. Universities that have qualified staff for the courses should also offer elective courses in Burmese, Cambodian, Indonesian, Malay, Vietnamese and Filipino languages. 

Anything less than quality and well-designed education will mean the peoples of other Asean nations will beat Thais in the labour market. Without quality human resources, Thailand will not offer an interesting investment destination in the eyes of foreigners either. 

So, it is high time for all educational institutes in Thailand to touch the core of the preparations for the fast–approaching Asean Economic Community. 

 

CHULARAT SAENGPASSA

[email protected]

THE NATION