Chaturon must hear reformers' voices - then act

Last month, Chaturon announced his education policies. Since then, he has joined many seminars to hear what the various stakeholders have to say about the policies. For example, he attended a seminar last week on “Systematic Teaching and Learning Reform” to get feedback from educators. While this showed Chaturon’s good intentions, one should note that those present at the closed-group discussion were largely the same old faces. 

Among the many policies Chaturon intends to promote during his tenure are teacher-education reform, the urgent implementation of ICT (information and communications technology)-based educational reform, and the improvement of education in the southern border provinces. 

Chaturon has been active in promoting his ideas. He even flew to the deep South earlier this month to hear what his ministry could do for students, teachers and schools there. Last week, he also listened to how ICT could be used to improve education quality.

After examining his new policies, I have come to the conclusion that the education minister is trying his best to listen to all public and private groups – in particular the various marginalised groups – in the hope of gathering their opinions and integrating them into new action plans.

But at the same time, I have also noticed that there are many educational issues that have been discussed for decades, for which no real solutions are in sight.

Sadly, many of these issues have not been tackled using available research that could provide evidence of progress or failure. There are big questions here. Have we ever learned from past experience or records? Do we always repeat the same misguided steps down the path of failure?

Why have we made so little progress in education reform?

There has been an effort from education reformers, who meet occasionally to share their concerns at “The Way Forward” forum on Thai education. This group of reformers aims to strengthen Thai education and find a new way to achieve successful reform. They hope to work collaboratively in order to form a real movement of educators.

Despite the fact that they have different backgrounds and ideas on education, they have tried to unify their efforts for a better education for Thais, with “whole-system” thinking. The recommendations from their forum can be summarised as follows:

@Set up a neutral organisation, a National Institute for Educational Policy Research, and a Curriculum Research Centre, to investigate all available evidence for use in future educational enhancement. Importantly, these research institutions should be independent from political parties.

@Encourage cooperation among all stakeholders, such as private-sector groups, NGOs, parents, social communities and the like, to bring about changes in both micro and macro education systems and solve the problems of the entire education 

system simultaneously.

@ Create functional and practical means and strategies to support education reform.

@Seriously refine “teacher education” in every dimension to build strong and 

qualified teachers, and establish a perspicuous process for teacher-induction programmes.

@ Work hand-in-hand with the Teacher Council of Thailand to create an innovative framework for teacher professionalism and qualities. Shall we learn from the Medical Council of Thailand? Shall we have a coaching system along the lines of a teacher clinic?

@Revise the mechanism of the “Teacher Leadership” selection process to recruit competent school principals.

Eventually, we need to find a way to move forward. Who will be the host of this process? Where will the resources come from? What is the best strategy? Importantly, teacher education should comply with the Education Act.

All vital educational components need to be reengineered!

When stakeholders sit down and address these issues, they should keep in mind that their discussions may be useful, but discussions alone won’t lead to tangible results. It is crucial that they translate what they discuss into action. 

Chaturon, in particular, must be aware that he needs to deliver some real action. Otherwise, if his tenure happens to be as short as those of his predecessors, the country’s education system will have to go back to the beginning stage of reform – the process of announcing new policies and gathering opinions.