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Published on January 23, 2008

The idea came from requirements for quality education systems in the draft bill on promoting non-formal education and free informal education in Article 20 and the Private Education Act 2007, aimed at accelerating their development, said Education permanent secretary Jaruayporn Thoranin.

She revealed there had been close collaboration between ONESQA, Office of the Non-Formal Education Commission (ONFEC) and Office of the Private Education Commission (OPEC), to establish the respective systems under ONFEC.

They comprise the educational quality assurance system for the short basic education curriculum; an alternative system for short-term vocational courses and a system for "free Thai informal education" programmes.

ONFEC had set a goal this year to implement the system at 100 non-formal centres before letting ONESQA carry out a quality assessment next year, she said. As for private education, Jaruayporn said the systems for international schools and private schools will provide short-term vocational or "life-quality developing" courses.

Jaruayporn said the establishment of non-formal education quality assurance system for short courses from both ONFEC and OPEC would be done simultaneously.

OPEC, which had 4,000 non-formal private schools under its supervision, would use the pilot project at 100 schools this year.

For international schools under OPEC, Jaruayporn said they had to pass the assessment and quality assurance from international organisations accredited by the Education Ministry within six years of obtaining their school licences.

There were 110 international schools (30 kindergartens and 80 schools offering classes from kindergarten to middle school), she said.

So far 37 schools passed such tests while 13 were undergoing assessment and 30 others were in the process of applying for them, she said.

As for the 30 kindergartens, OPEC would develop them by equipping them with the new OPEC system with the help of ONESQA.

The Nation