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The government's annual education budget of Bt300 billion and parents' total spending on tuition fees of about Bt900 billion per year are being wasted since they yield low-quality graduates, Somkiat Pongpai-boon, chairman of the 40 Rajabhat Institutions' Lecturers and Officials Council, told a seminar on "Thai Education: Crisis and Solutions" at the Rattanakosin Hotel in Bangkok yesterday.

He cited results of Graduate Assessment Tests at the Prathom 6 and Mathayom 3 and 6 levels in which no subject had an average score above 50 per cent and a 2003 report saying that 40 Rajabhat institutions easily and surprisingly produced one million graduates.

He added that many universities were too focused on commercial gains and neglected to arrange quality teaching, likening them to "hungry tigers".

Somkiat called for non-profit private organisations to be given state funding to compete with the state education institutions and the "hungry tigers" to ensure variety and quality in education.

Dr Usanee Anuruthwong, president of Srinakharinwirot University's Centre for the Gifted and Talented, said that understanding of brain development and learning process in children was not incorporated into the Thai education system, resulting in 99 per cent of children being unhappy at school.

She called for more understanding of this aspect in drawing up a curriculum and evaluation system based on children's potential and abilities, rather than basing these on administrative considerations as at present.