Education of children is not a race

Former prime minister Anand Panyarachun has given some interesting food for thought regarding Thai education. In his opinion, Thailand has veered off track when it comes to educating its young generation, relying on the conventional approach of giving the government too much responsibility and control, and viewing children’s learning as a race.
He suggested that one way to reform Thai education would be to end the virtual public passiveness and misunderstanding, which he said placed too much burden on the government’s shoulders. Parents and society must play a more proactive role in determining the future of Thai education in order to cope with the fast-changing world, he said.
A new parental or social mindset is required, according to Anand, who was speaking at a forum organised by Thailand Education Partnership (TEP). He is spot on in saying that viewing children’s education as a competition is making the parents, the government, and the children themselves go astray. In today’s world, scores at school have become increasingly less important in the eyes of employers. Job seekers are judged on what they can actually do, not on how good they performed in school or university tests, Anand said.
The “competition” mindset has led to the current atmosphere in which many unhealthy factors prevail. Children have been forced to take extra tutorials on subjects they don’t like. They are under pressure to perform well in areas that they don’t really care about, thus losing time that should have been spent on issues they have a passion for. Many parents, instead of promoting their children’s talents, choose to go with scores that they can boast about. Thailand thus finds itself in a predicament of having a large number of people who excelled at school but do not go far in real life.
Anand stressed that parents must stop being the determiners of their children’s fate and start becoming creators of opportunities that are consistent with their children’s talents. Schools must inspire rather than be a place dreaded by children. Teachers may have to teach less and support more. Most of all, Anand said, nobody must monopolise how children should learn, practice and be kept in line. Despite having an important role, the government must not control the educational process. In other words, the government may have to regulate less and facilitate more.
The Thai educational system has been very much based on the needs or influences of people who don’t really matter. This is why nourishing or supporting talents has never been prioritised. 
Courses should have been designed to tap potential and then improve talents, not to get the conventional “cream of the crop”.
Education is not a race, Anand insisted, pointing out that maximising one’s potential can be done without “competition” in its original sense. Skill development remains a top priority, but it can be achieved without making the children believe that everything depends on them doing better than their peers. Anand admitted one thing, though. Thailand’s political circumstances, he said, is not very conducive to a true reform of the education system. Even under normal national circumstances, politics should never be allowed to get near how Thai children learn to develop their potential.
Something as important as education should go beyond politicisation. Children are like trees, who take years to grow or become fully grown, so to put their future in the hands of politics, which always requires immediate results and belittles or downplays rivals’ good policies, is a bad idea.