FOLLOWING the latest announcement from the education minster that the new Thai curriculum will focus on social studies, history and developing students’ loyalties to the three pillars of Thai society, hopes of genuine education reform appear as elusive as ever.
Comprehensive education reforms are crucial if Thailand is to have any chance of competing in the knowledge economy. Thai students continue to learn from teachers employing outdated pedagogies, with poorly designed assessments, a nonsensical ‘no fail policy’ and an overloaded curriculum. While other countries engage in debates on the advantages of specialization over breadth, Thailand’s high school students find themselves overloaded in a system that attempts both, forcing them to spend 400 hours at school each year more than their European counterparts. After 12 years of schooling, all these additional hours result in Thai students’ averaging less than 50% in core subjects such as Mathematics and Science. If the education system is be improved, it requires fundamental changes that require bold and decisive actions...