Kingdom 'has potential for education hub'
In an address at the opening ceremony of the Thailand Inter-national Education Exhibition 2007 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre, Commerce Ministry permanent secretary Karun Kittisataporn said Thailand has a high potential to be the international education hub of Asia.
The ministry expects that students' enrolment for international courses and schools in Thailand will grow by 5-10 per cent this year from last year's total revenue of Bt10 billion, thanks to the government's encouragement of more international programmes to open here. Karun said the government is trying to develop educational systems to cope with international standards. The plan is to convince Thai students to choose international programmes here rather than going to study abroad. The idea is also to attract more foreign students to enrol in international programmes in the Kingdom. Since the launch of the educational development policy, the number of Thai and foreign students enrolled in international programmes in Thailand has increased from 63,754 in 2004 to about 80,000 students last year. Of this amount, 60,000 are Thai students who are enrolled in the international institutions instead of spending their money overseas. This enables the country to save more than Bt100 billion a year from flowing out of the Kingdom to educational institutes overseas, said Karun. Moreover, Thailand can earn billions of baht in income from foreign students enrolled in international institutions here. The revenue from the annual spending of more than 20,000 foreign students is about Bt10 billion a year. On average, the students spend Bt500,000 per year, Karun added. Chinese students are the largest body of foreign students studying in the international institutes, following by those from Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Japan, the United States and India. In recent years, more than 100 international schools have been established in the Kingdom. This figure shows that Thailand's educational system is developing to another level of advantage, which will benefit the country's education growth, Karun said. In 2000, only 12,974 foreign students were enrolled in international institutes here, but the figure has increased by 10 per cent each year. According to the Commerce Ministry, 161 international educational institutions have a presence in the country and 187 other schools offer an Education Ministry-approved English-language curriculum. More than 200 international and bilingual schools are participating in the education exhibition, which runs through Sunday and is open from 10am to 6pm.
Petchanet Pratruangkrai The Nation
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