After first year, the government deserves a failing grade on education

The future for Thailand’s education looks dim. There is no silver lining in sight for as long as the government remains uncommitted to improving educational quality.
What has the government done during the past year on the educational scene?
Policies seem confusing. There is no clearcut longterm plan in place either. Even if some goals appear in writing, commitment is clearly lacking.
This administration seems to focus just on the implementation of the One Tablet Per Child project, a populist scheme initiated by the Pheu Thai Party.
This project has gone ahead despite all the caution expressed by so many educators. The government so far has ignored the fact that the heart of the educational service lies with content and the quality of teachers, not electronic devices. It has ignored even the findings from research commissioned by the Education Ministry itself.
The government from the very beginning wanted to hand out the tablets to Pathom 1 students first. But experts from various fields suggested it would be better for the government to give them to older students.
The Education Ministry then commissioned Srinakharinwirot University to study the use of tablets for the enhancement of the teaching/learning process. From the study, the university’s researchers have concluded that the tablets should be handed out Pathom 4 students rather than Pathom 1 students.
After the research findings were released, the government continued to distribute the tablets to Pathom 1 students anyway. The move by the Thai government has worried even foreign experts.
“The first graders [Pathom 1 students] in primary schools are not old enough to handle all kinds of media or resources to cultivate themselves by using tablet PCs,” Dae Joon Hwang, Professor of the College of ICT at Sungkyunkwan University and secretarygeneral of the Korean Council for University Education.
Despite a large number of suggestions, the government has not yet come up with anything we could call a benchmarking for this project. Before the tablets were handed out, we knew nothing about technology literacy in Thailand. Now, after some children have them, we still don’t know how this will increase their technology literacy and to what percentage in a specified period. None of that information exists, making this a total waste of budget.
Several educators in Thailand have looked on helplessly. They are now keeping their fingers crossed that the One Tablet Per Child project will not come with poor content.
As the government’s focus is on the populist projects, the country has not found any solid educational policies during the past year.
For example, when Woravat Auapinyakul was the education minister, he pushed for the English Speaking Year campaign for 2012. He boasted about hiring retired native speakers to help Thai students.
However, the campaign has not really materialised. When the current government chose Suchart Tadathamrongvej as the new education minister, the focus shifted to Mandarin. Suchart boasted about an idea to teach Mandarin as the third language at all schools under the Office of Basic Education Commission’s supervision.
For teachers, Mandarin is not so easy to learn. Quality teachers must be available before the Education Ministry can expect great results.
To date, the Education Ministry has hardly paid any attention to this goal of improving teachers’ standards.
Educational reform has all but disappeared from the government’s priority list.
Politicians in power have the clout to change educational policies and when political change lags, there is disruption to the country’s educational advancement.
“I feel desperate about the future of Thailand’s education,” Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University president Chuangchote Bhuntuvech said.
To him, the country’s educational quality is on the decline.
Chuangchote had hoped the government would make educational reform a national agenda with master plans intact regardless of what political camp came to power. South Korea has achieved this and its educational services are now shining.
“[But] I see no light at the end of the tunnel for Thailand’s education,” Chuangchote said.
He said he has not heard Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra saying anything about education during the past year.
“Her government seems to be too busy with tablet procurement,” he said.
Chuangchote said he was going to retire in the next few months and despite the desperation of the past many decades, he still hoped that real educational reform would start in Thailand before he died.
That is possible, I agree – but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Chularat Saengpassa
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