Students returned to school for the new academic year last week – but most found that little had changed in Thailand’s subpar education system.
“Thailand’s education is still stuck in the 2.0 era instead of stepping into the 5.0 era,” prominent educator Assoc Prof Dr Sompong Jitradub commented at the start of the 2024 academic year.
He said the country’s much-hyped educational reforms were mostly physical and focused on things like buildings, cleaner toilets, the hiring of school janitors and administrative staff, as well as higher pay for teachers.
But reforms tackling the essence of education have simply not materialized, he added.
That view is backed by the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), in which Thai children’s academic performance was the lowest since the country joined the program in the early 2000s.
Thai kids scored an average of less than 50% in all subjects assessed by PISA, which is run by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
‘No progress’ under current government
Sompong said the current government has made no real progress since announcing its policy statement eight months ago.
There has neither been real educational reform nor a significant reduction of longstanding educational inequality, he said.
For decades, the performance of rural schools in Thailand has significantly lagged behind their urban counterparts.
“From what I’ve observed, the government has merely been repairing the current education system.
But it has not acted to make improvements that are desperately needed across the board,” said Sompong, a former lecturer at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Education.
He did however note that Education Minister Pol General Permpoon Chidchob of the Bhumjaithai Party has been attentive to requests and responded quickly to minor proposals.
For example, on hearing at a public event that a school’s restroom was dilapidated, he fast-tracked the budget for rapid repairs.
Anything likely to score political points would trigger actions and tangible results from Permpoon, said the academic.
He cited the rapid scrapping of a rule requiring teachers to take turns watching over their schools at night or weekends after a female teacher was attacked by a man during her shift.
Permpoon has also addressed the chronic problem of debt among teachers and supported handing them a pay rise.
“However, I have not seen him make any significant efforts when it comes to child development. On the contrary, I am convinced that educational reform has faltered under the current government,” Sompong said.
New education bill in square one
The National Education Act has been in force since 1999. Critics say the 25-year-old blueprint for Thai education has failed to keep pace with the fast-changing digital world.
The previous administration responded by drafting a new education bill, which had sailed through the first reading in Parliament. But the bill was scrapped as soon as the government left power.
The House committee on education began drafting a new bill soon after the Pheu Thai-led government was formed last August.
“This means the drafting process has just started again. This is on top of the fact that the core curriculum has not been updated since 2008 for most subjects,” Sompong said.
Move Forward Party’s MP Paramee Waichongcharoen, who sits on House committee on education, however said the draft should be ready for Parliament to consider in July.
Government approach to education
The Education Ministry has declared a simplistic-sounding policy to promote “Good Academic Performance and Happiness” among students.
“We have instructed all educational service area offices to implement this policy,” said Thanu Wongchinda, secretary-general of the Office of Basic Education Commission.
He said his agency had also encouraged schools to reduce homework for students in favor of testing their academic knowledge in various subjects via a single assignment.
“Assigning homework for every subject is unnecessary,” he said. “Teachers can work together towards a single assignment that reflects students’ knowledge and skills in multiple fields.”
Permpoon has also instructed schools to ease rules on uniforms, saying students should be allowed to wear what they want provided it is polite and appropriate.
As for the problem of high school dropouts, Sompong proposed that teachers could visit the homes of at-risk students.
He noted that the economic downturn had reduced many families’ incomes by 25% or more, increasing the risk of students leaving school.
“Poorer parents may consider taking their children out of school [to work] in the hope of lowering expenses and boosting income,” he said.
About 1.02 million children aged between three and 18 are not attending school because of poverty, according to Sompong.
In the past, children of cash-strapped families may have dropped out halfway through their secondary education. But now, children are having to leave school even before completing primary education, he said.
Sompong urged the government to focus harder on the “Thailand Zero Dropout” policy to make a real impact in the next three to five years.
“The government should also engage the private sector in these efforts,” he continued.
He pointed to the model provided by Ratchaburi province, where a public-private partnership has managed to coax 8,000 of more than 14,000 dropouts back to school.
“This model has incorporated a three-fold system at each participating school,” he explained.
The Ratchaburi schools offer education not just to full-time students but also to those who need to study outside class or in non-formal education.
The ground-breaking initiative covers underprivileged children who, even when they need to take care of their elderly grandparents or work to feed their family, can still study and get credits for educational certificates.
“Teenage moms or former drug addicts can also study under the initiative. They don’t have to come to school every day. They just need to study on their own and complete the assignments,” Sompong said.
Some 157 schools have implemented this flexible educational system in an attempt to boost underprivileged youngsters’ educational opportunities and reduce the learning gap.
The Education Ministry has responded to this Thailand Zero Dropout policy by setting up a system for kids to bank their academic credits.
“This is a good step in the right direction. If our system is more flexible, more youngsters will be able to stay in education,” Sompong said.
Without support, school dropouts are more likely to land low-paid jobs and struggle to make ends meet throughout their lifetime.
Their low incomes will also affect their children, spurring a generational cycle of poverty.
By Thai PBS World’s General Desk
