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Published on February 19, 2008

"As science is still something far from people's consciousness, it is urgent that we bring it closer to people and encourage them to have more logical thinking processes," said Wuthipong.

To encourage scientific learning, the new minister plans to work with the Education Ministry as well as the Information and Communications Technology Ministry to lay down science education infrastructure to allow people in every part of the country to have a chance to learn basic scientific theories.

"Since we still lack science teachers, especially in remote areas, we had the idea to develop science-education content in electronic form such as on CD-ROM and distribute it to every school so children as well as teachers themselves could learn about science together," he said.

The idea is to present basic scientific principles which have an impact on people's lives in the form of digital content.

Wuthipong said the content, which could be developed as animation or movies to attract people's interest, would demonstrate each science theory in three key steps, starting from the emergence of the idea behind the theory, then the process of developing the idea into the actual theory, to the adoption of the theory and its benefits in practical use.

These three steps, he added, would create more understanding about each science theory so people could apply it for further use. Importantly, teachers and children could also see the development of thinking processes and this would improve their thinking skills as well.

"We believe that if people understand more about science they can improve their thinking to become more logical," he said.

The ministry, meanwhile, also plans to work with science professors from the Science Faculty at Chulalongkorn University for content development.

The content, Wuthipong said, would be developed into three levels - for primary students, secondary students in Grades 7-9 and high-school students in Grades 10-12.

The minister hopes that with this project, once Thai students completed their high-school study they would know all about the science theories necessary for their lives.

In the short term, Wuthipong said the project would partly solve the problem of the lack of science teachers, while in the long term it would stimulate scientific learning for the country as a whole.

The minister also set a direction to bring science and technology to each local administration and encourage people in the community to use science and technology to improve their social and economic systems.

He said the ministry would set up a team to oversee this task. The team would assess the requirements of each community and then select proper technology for adoption. "In the first stage, we plan to select a pilot community to make a showcase of science and technology adoption. When the pilot project shows success, we will use it as a model for further development to other communities," he added.

Since research and development is also a key foundation for the country's development, the minister also intends to focus on R&D projects which are in line with the country's direction for development.

Wuthipong plans to invite related research and development organisations to discuss the direction of R&D in Thailand. He intends to set the R&D direction and encourage the emergence of R&D projects which could have a strong impact on the country's social and economic system.

However, he admitted that Thailand still had very limited R&D expenditure and he plans to ask the prime minister to increase the R&D budget to reach at least 2 per cent of the total government budget.

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation