Thais should be prepared to deal with challenges in education including the quality of education, education management and a crisis of faith in the teaching profession, the dean of Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Education said yesterday.

Associate Professor Pruet Siribanpitak said the quality of education should be improved, not only as regarded students' knowledge but also their behaviour and attitudes.

He was speaking on the future of education in the country at a Mahidol University conference attended by hundreds.

Pruet said the trend would be a reduction in the number of students in schools and universities between three and 21 years of age, due to the declining population growth.

A total of 15.7 million were in schools or universities in 2004, compared to 14.9 million last year.

As a result, the decline could reduce the overcrowded classrooms, he said.

Meanwhile, more people will have a chance to get into universities and private educational institutes, he said. However, such opportunities for "the masses" could lead to a decline in the quality of education.

Equality in education will be another issue to consider, said Pruet. Different admission methods could have different results. For example, accepting local students could bring equal opportunities to students, while entrance examinations could bring more educational excellence.

While entrance exams bring out the smart students, accepting local students might bring students with different learning abilities together, he said.

Teachers should improve their teaching ability as equal opportunities for students to graduate arise, he said.

The more different kinds of people attend universities, the more lecturers should pay attention to students as they will be a mixture of the gifted, the average, and those with special needs, and they can't just let the students fail and say it was the students' fault any more, he said.

Decentralisation from the ministry to the people is important, but transferring education to local-administration organisations is still an issue. There may have to be a compromise with joint administration by central and local governments, he said.

Pruet said having autonomous universities allowed them to administer their resources independently without having to obey government regulations that might not fit all universities. This would not necessarily affect education fees, he said.

"Whether universities are under government administration or become autonomous, they can still offer free education or state welfare," he said.

Faith in the teaching profession had reached a critical level and should be restored soon, he said.

Education majors are no longer popular among students with good grades in high school, he noted, adding that even those who took them often chose not to teach because they had better opportunities and conditions in other jobs.

Improving working conditions for teachers is crucial, he said. There are too many students to a classroom, and teachers are overloaded with work and very underpaid, he said.

However, universities should be stricter in producing higher-quality teachers, he said, suggesting that student teachers be better qualified before they got into the programme, with at the very least five-years of education before getting a bachelor's degree in education.

The licensing system should be continued, he said, as it had provided more trust and a better attitude towards the profession among academically competent students.

"More smart students are applying to faculties of education. They get good grades and are more confident about saying they are studying education when they meet people," he said.

Another challenge will be how society promotes "education for all", which should not be restricted to schools or educational institutes any more, Pruet said, with the family

and religious organisations taking some responsibility on their own initiative.

Kornchanok Raksaseri

The Nation