Discontent with current curriculum content

Liberalising education is associated with better health, a longer life, successful career planning and participatory involvement. Inclusive education is one of the most powerful levers available to make society more equitable, tolerant and just.

Elitist and discriminatory formal education has systematically depreciated local languages, indigenous cultures and ethnic minorities in remote, rural areas, breeding contempt for diligent hard work. Moving away from the Bangkok-centric top-down government monopoly toward an enhanced role for decentralisation and financial devolution would require a major shift of power, responsibility and accountability priorities, loosening the establishment's tight grip of academic ownership and instructional administration.

A realistic approach to competency-based curriculum reform, responding to the rapidly evolving demands of our global socio-economic network, must emphasise marketable career options and capabilities for sustainable employment in the formal or informal Asean sector. How? By broadening the scope of critical, abstract and creative thinking, nurturing aesthetic appreciation qualities, expanding technological literacy and communicative multilingual competence.

Bearing in mind that progressive regional reform is a dynamic, ongoing process, our shared long-range goals should focus on the do-able vision that a flexible curriculum is the enabling tool that may be used to achieve the optimal learner's profile, requiring Asean unity aimed at community creation, coordination, collaboration, cooperation and continuity.

Charles Frederickson