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Published on January 14, 2008

The Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Techno-logy (IPST) has set its sights on eventually turning out 24,000 scientists and research-ers from the 800,000 children born each year.

IPST director Prof Dr Surin Phongsupasamit says Thailand has been facing a shortage of talented graduates capable of helping the country modernise its industrial and agricultural sectors on the scale of other countries.

"In developed countries, such as Finland, Japan and Korea, there are up to 200 scientists and researchers per 10,000 people, whereas Thailand has only five in 10,000. Singapore has around 40 scientists and researchers to every 10,000. About 10 times more than Thailand," Surin told The Nation.

To modernise the country's industrial and agricultural sectors, it needs scientists and researchers to build a knowledge base and then apply it, he said.

For several years, the IPST has established many program-mes to produce scientists and researchers and will integrate these projects to produce 24,000 graduates as its goal - which it aims to reach in the near future.

In addition, the Science and Technology Ministry is putting together a science and technology profession promotion bill to put science and technology personnel directly into jobs that suit them. The bill will also bring about improvement in those fields as people have to improve their knowledge and experience to upgrade their professional positions.

Since the number of students studying in each age group is around 800,000, according to statistics, the IPST aims to groom 3 per cent of them as scientists and researchers.

According to the IPST proposal to the Cabinet for developing and promoting talented people in science and technology, the institute aims to have 3,500-5,000 personnel with PhDs in fields relating to research and development per year. The proposal was submitted to the Cabinet on December 20.

The IPST has already ini-tiated programmes to assist

juveniles and teachers interested in science and mathematics, in-cluding the International Academic Olympiads, the Development and Promotion

of Science and Technology Talents Project, the Science, Mathematics and Technology Excellence Develop-ment Pro-ject and the Teacher Profes-sional Development Project.

"The IPST has found there are weaknesses in mathematics and science education at all levels - primary, secondary and undergraduate. We want 24,000 to study in their chosen fields of skill in mathematics and science," said Surin.

At the primary level, Prathom 3 and 6 students are given a special test and those who pass are given science and mathematics books containing more ad-vanced content. At the secondary level, it has also provided the International Academic Olym-piads for students studying Matthayom 3 and 6.

It also provided 96 special science and mathematics classrooms for Matthayom 4-6 students in every province last year for 34,000 students.

"When adding the number of those students with the number in schools teaching maths and science only, like Mahidol Wittayanusorn School, Debsirin School and Samsen Wittayalai School, it comes to 4,000. This is just a pilot project. We will increase such classrooms in 500 schools to develop the number of students who want to be scientists and researchers," Surin said.

There is also a project supporting students studying mathematics and science from Matthayom 4 to PhD level, which has been operating for over 20 years. The project has trained students to conduct research along with their study in those fields.

"More than 550 students have graduated from the project. After the students have completed their PhD degree, they will come back to teach at the university they had studied, and at the same time would be mentor teachers for secondary students in the same project and others in 96 special classrooms. There are seven secondary schools that will join the project with seven universities in every region of the country," Surin cited.

Apart from developing students, the IPST has been running a project for 10 years to improve the quality of maths and science teachers and to raise the number of these teachers as the country is now facing a shortage.

It has given a chance to students with at least 2.75 GPA (grade-point average) to study mathematics, science, and computer studies in universities and to then study the professional teachers' curriculum. More than 1,000 teachers have graduated from the project so far.

Wannapa Phetdee

The Nation