Thailand hope to improve education ranking from 25 to 15 by 2015

The government and business sector boast about growth figures but still ignore the underlying reality of Thailand's declining competitiveness

The Thai government and business sector aim to improve Thailand's IMD World Competitiveness ranking from the current 26 to 15 by 2015. The goal is desirable but the Kingdom is unlikely to achieve a higher ranking if it fails to take vigorous action to address the quality of local human resources.

It will be impossible for the country to improve its competitiveness without better skills' development. The government, educational institutes as well as the private sector must work together to improve human and infrastructure development in science and technology as well as basic and further education.

The effort must start now. Education development requires time to bear results. The world's most successful businessmen realise the importance of good education. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have recently been vocal in pressuring for better quality education because they know how this can make a big difference for future generations.

However, the prospects for Thailand do not look promising, according to some. During a recent seminar, panellists at the IMD World Competitiveness Survey - carried out by the Swiss-based international Institute for Management Development - agreed that there had been less development in key areas and weak cooperation between government and private agencies over the past year.

The target to improve Thai competitiveness will require cooperation from all sides in setting up both short- and long-term plans to increase competitiveness in various fields. However, the government has so far focused on short-term infrastructure projects that involve large investment; the business sector is more concerned with profits, while educational institutes fail to provide the best resources or improve the quality of students.

Competitiveness derives from knowledge-based resources. But Thailand has been complacent in this area. And it is now struggling to compete with other newly industrialised countries in the region. In spite of good economic growth, research and development spending in Thailand is still low at only 0.22 per cent of gross domestic product. The number of scientific and industrial researchers is still low at six or seven per 10,000 people. This must be increased to 15 by 2015 to improve Thai competitiveness, according to Thanin Pa-Em, deputy secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Board. In fact, he said the country's competitiveness had not improved, but had actually worsened over the past 10 years.

The Thai government and some businesspeople boast about the good growth rate largely because of the booming non-productive sectors such as property. But there is still no substantive effort to improve the quality of human resources.

According to Sumeth Yamnoon, secretary-general of the Office of the Higher Education Commission, the government's budget for education was currently around 4.4 per cent of GDP. It must be increased to at least 5 per cent in order to ensure stable human-resource development. The average spending per capita on education in Thailand is just US$665 (about Bt20,000) per year, but it should be more than $1,000 in order to encourage quality education, he said.

However, money alone will not solve this problem unless we have coordinated plans as well as strong determination from all parties. Developed countries, especially the US, put education as a main priority because decision-makers in government and business are worried about maintaining their competitiveness in the future. Bill Gates has emphasised the importance of work-related learning and educational discipline, while Steve Jobs has stressed the importance of humanities and liberal arts, which can improve students' creative ability to think outside the box. Zuckerberg has donated a substantial amount to improve the quality of American public schools.

What has the Thai business sector done? Our tycoons are more concerned about their profits instead of making social contributions. By the same token, politicians and bureaucrats either misuse public money or put it directly into their own pockets. The end result is that Thai students are stuck with low quality education and our schools and colleges fail to produce qualified human resources for the future.

Unless this education issue is tackled, it is useless to talk about the improvement of Thailand's ranking on the world competitiveness scoreboard. We can only hope we don't slide further down the ranks.