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Published on August 17, 2007

A research into Thai education from 2006 to 2007 revealed that the government invested more money for educational development at all levels but that educational opportunities for kindergarten and Prathom levels were in decline from four years ago.

It was also found the budget for higher education was so substantial that there was little left for basic and vocational education, Dean of Rangsit University's Social Innovation Faculty Witthayakorn Chiangkul told a seminar yesterday.

During the fiscal year 2005-2006, the government allocated a budget of 21 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for education and had a policy for 12 years' free education, but the figure for children with access to basic education did not significantly increase, Witthayakorn said.

Moreover, educational opportunities at kindergarten and Prathom levels were lower than four years ago, he said.

In 2002, 2.67 million - or 90 per cent of the 2.96 million children aged three to five - had the chance to study kindergarten, while only 2.43 million - or 86 per cent of the 2.83 million children aged three to five - had the chance to study kindergarten in the year 2007.

In 2002, 100 per cent of 5.81 million children aged 6 to 11 entered primary schools while only 5.59 million - or 95 per cent of children in that age range - had the opportunity to study for Prathom level in 2007, he said.

However, more youths aged 12 to 17 had opportunities to access secondary-level education in the last year and the academic track was particularly crowded, despite the government's goal to have a ratio of academic track students and vocational track students at 50:50 to support the demands of the labour market, Witthayakorn said.

This year there was a 58:42 ratio for academic and vocational track students, he said, adding that the number of vocational students might be even less than reported because some failed to present themselves after applying for a vocational college.

Not many students were interested in studying in the vocational field because it had a negative image in society, which placed a very high value on studying for a degree, while the Education Ministry did not do much to improve the image.

Government budgets had also been focused on higher education, Witthayakorn said.

This year, the government allocated 16 per cent of the overall education budget to higher education, an increase from the year 2002's 13 per cent.

The budget for basic education this year was 68 per cent, down from the year 2002's 71 per cent. This showed the government was more supportive to the higher education for rich and middle-class students rather than the basic education for poor people.

Compared to other similar-income countries, Thailand gave too little support to secondary level, noted the Minister.

Witthayakorn said the overall picture of Thai education was still merely a tool to serve the capitalist economy that focused on the GDP. Therefore, most educational development projects emphasised producing manpower to serve the economy, such as scholarships abroad and computer procurement, while there was no real investment in the reform and improvement of teachers, curricular, teaching methods and learning, he said.

Most problems facing education were due to teacher shortage and the quality of teaching, Witthayakorn said.

Rural teachers barely had time to actually teach pupils as they also had workloads of administration and meetings outside school. Teaching methods resulted in students one-sidedly being on the receiving end of information from teachers rather than stimulating them to think and analyse.

Dean of Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Education, Dr Pruet Siribanpitak, said currently 90 per cent of basic education schools were state-run and 70 per cent were not of a good enough standard due to the resource limitations.

While 50 per cent of the smaller private schools were of good quality, he urged the government to give more opportunities for the private sector to invest, so that the government could bring its budget to develop a better quality of education.

Supinda Na Mahachai

The Nation