PM emphasizes students’ quality in turning point of Thailand’s education system

(27/10/2010)

At the Ambassador Hotel, Bangkok, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva chaired the opening ceremony of the seminar “Way to success in education reformation in the 2nd decade” and declared that the emphasis on students’ quality is the turning point of Thailand’s education system.

On this occasion, the Prime Minister talked about the policy to push forward the emphasis on students’ quality to achieve results in the second decade of reform. He said that it is the government’s important policy that the most worthy investment is to invest in people. This policy will be carried on until the year BE 2561 because it is important to better the quality of life of the Thai people and build a peaceful society where the rights and destiny of all are equally respected.

The Prime Minister talked about the education reform in the second decade, that it has been pushed forward and its vision has been declared. It has been carried out continuously from the first ten years. More objectives and measures are needed to reform education to be more well-qualified and systematic.

In the first 10 years of education reform, there were successes, limitations, failure and loss of time, resources for campaigns, and administration. Also, the important topic of students’ quality was overlooked. So, the reform in the second decade should include clear policies to achieve higher student quality. It is the key factor to push forward the education reform that aims to produce qualified, able, moral, happy citizens, which will lead to better society, economy, and politics.

However, although Thailand’s education teaches both general skills and specialized skills, the most important thing that we should be aware is that those skills must not be disconnected from the society and real life. Formerly, the education system did not go along with the real economic and social needs, especially skills required for occupation. There was unemployment, the departure of youths from their homes, and other consequential problems, said the Prime Minister. The system should stimulate the students so that they can adjust to changes, especially with foreign languages since we are communicating more with foreigners. It should also concern the Internet, the largest knowledge resource where 90% of the information is in English, which is also connected to information technology. In other words, the government also wishes to focus on and wants our people to have more access to information technologies.

Meanwhile, learning from activities or outside-class learning should be focused. It is considered the key factor for quality enhancement in the beginning stage of reform and social participation. There should also be evaluation to be aware of developments, problems and limitations, which will enable us to improve both the process and the students themselves. However, the evaluation should be simple, well-focused, and not a burden to the evaluator, the Prime Minister added. The Prime Minister reassured that in the future, we will have a better education as a consequence of this reform. We will then be able to solve all problems at hand during the second decade of reform.