Huge need for bipartisan agreement on national priorities and policies

The answer to this question is very important. If the policies are for the good of the nation’s future, the public stands to benefit. But if the future refers to that of a political party, the entire society will sooner or later find that they are in real trouble.
Human resources are the most important assets of a nation. It was true thousands of years ago and is still true today.
So, all countries should focus on developing educational policies that best respond to public interest in the long run. Education, after all, is a strong tool to empower children and adults. It is a necessary tool to develop human resources.
The situation in Thailand is not very good, though, when it comes to educational policies.
In recent history, major political parties have been obsessed with populist policies. They seem to care more about their own future than the sustainable future of the nation.
In 2001, the Thaksin Shinawatra-led Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party was the first to introduce populist policies for the country’s educational arena. When he rose to premiership, he offered tempting schemes like “One District, One Scholarship” and the “Income-Contingency Student Loan”. While such schemes wowed a huge number of voters, they caused concern among many parties.
After the military staged a coup to remove Thaksin from power in 2006, the Surayud Chulanont-led government tried to focus on reforming teachers and scrapped the One District One Scholarship scheme. But the reincarnation of TRT – the People Power Party (PPP) – brought this back when they returned to power in 2008 along with many populist policies, including scholarships funded by the sale of government lottery tickets.
Between 2009 and 2011, the political tide changed and the Democrat Party came to power. While the Democrat-led government talked about the second decade of educational reform, it also focused on populist policies such as 15 years of free education (instead of just 12 years of education) and the handout of free uniforms and free learning materials. Clearly, the Democrats wanted to fight their major rival’s policies with even more tempting populist policies.
But have politicians ever paused to think that such policies may endanger the country’s future?
The reincarnated PPP, the Pheu Thai Party, is now in power. It has revived the One District One Scholarship scheme and removed a key criterion, the income ceiling for parents of grant recipients.
The current government also launched the One Tablet Per Child project to the delight of young children despite concern among many educators. The Pheu Thai Party has also boasted about its policy to grant loans to graduates who wish to launch small businesses.
All these populist policies, despite some benefits, are designed mainly to woo votes for political parties that back them. They have not touched the core of the education process – how to empower people, equip them with knowledge and lifelong learning skills, as well as living skills – skills needed for work, and ethics.
To make matters worse, all ministers taking the helm at the Education Ministry during the past decade have had a different focus, meaning agencies under the ministry’s supervision have found it hard to ensure the continuity of any scheme.
In the past 10 years, Thailand has seen eight governments and 15 education ministers. Each minister is prone to ignore the schemes initiated and highlighted by his predecessors. So in the end, even great projects like the “New Breed of Teachers”, which focuses on the quality of teachers, lost momentum.
Education in Thailand still lags behind many other countries because education policies have never been on the national agenda. If they do reach this level, whatever party comes to power and whoever rises to the helm of the Education Ministry will have to support and implement them. Only with consistency and continuity can good educational polices deliver sustainable benefits.
For the sake of the country’s sustainable future, I am calling on all parties concerned to make education a national priority now. Taking action to amend past wrongs is better than pointing fingers at others.