EDUCATION FOR LIFE :
THAILAND’S MOST IMPORTANT CHALLENGE
A
Presentation by
His Excellency
SUKAVICH RANGSITPOL
Deputy Prime Minister
and
Minister of Education
Royal Thai Government
to the
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS CLUB OF THAILAND
2 April, 1997
Distinguished participant,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I wish to speak to you this evening as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education. This is because I wish to stress that education reform is not simply my vision. On the contrary, it is the very foundation of This Government‘s reformist policy platform.
Radical, sustained and far-reaching reform of Thailand’s national system of educations is seen as the critical path to achieve our priority goals of social equity and justice, of economic renewal for the new age of technology, and of political reform for the fulfillment of democratic principles.Those are high sounding words. Easy for government ministers to drop at the mention of a sound bite opportunity.
I would rather deal in reality so allow me to adopt the cold, calculating approach of the accountant and construct a balance sheet.
If we accept the role of government is to articulate the people’s long-term strategic vision for their country and to create the framework by which this vision can be most efficiently achieved, we need to have a clear understanding of where we are today as a nation, we need to have a clear and honest understanding of our assets and liabilities.
Allow me to start with the positive side, our assets:
We have inherited a proud past which included refined cultures and great cities equal to any the world has ever seen Archeologists say the Northeast of Thailand might be one of the birthplaces of human civilization.
Although we are predominantly Buddhists, all faiths are protected. This right of free religious expression is a great and valuable gift.
We as a society place great value on freedom of expression. This means that we all are able to talk, praise and criticize. Our media are among the freest in Asia, able to report on our Kingdom’s daily life.
This freedom of expression allows the construction of a national consensus, broad areas of agreement amongst us about how we wish to live our lives. About guiding principles. And this national consensus exists independent of politics, political parties and Parliament.
This national consensus is a valuable and sophisticated facet of our society. It is far from perfect since many people cannot make their voices heard to contribute to a true national consensus, but it is more developed than the current state of our political and government apparatus which is still struggling to understand this new idea of democracy.
In economic assets we have a rich agricultural base-we are one of the world’s greatest producers of agricultural and agro-industrial products.
Over the last 35 years we have been one of the most economically successful countries in the so-called developing world. From 1985 to 1995 we were the world’s fastest growing, free-market economy.
Economic statistics tell us that the average annual income for each Thai has increased from Baht 2,100 or 84 US dollars in 1961 to nearly Baht 75,000 or 3,000 US dollars today.
We have been one of the world’s most successful societies in terms of slowing the growth of our population-from 3.6% annual growth in 1960 to 1.3% today.
This means as a country our total assets are today shared between fewer people than would be the case if our population had kept growing very quickly. It also means the number of young Thais entering the workforce each year passed its peak and is now declining.
We have no foreign enemies threatening our borders from outside and no radical elements of society threatening instability from within.
This is a partial but impressive list of national assets and accomplishments of which we should all be proud and thankful. However, all is not well in our country as we can all too clearly see when we look at the balance sheet on the liabilities side-the negatives:
Our miracle economic performance has only benefitted a minority of the Thai people. Some 20 million Thais are a lot better off today but 40 million, the majority, have been left behind by this miracle.
Of all so-called developing countries Thailand now ranks in the top five in terms of income inequality. The proportion of the country’s wealth owned by the richest 20% compared with that owned by the poorest 20% shows one of the greatest income inequalities of any country in the world.
Our rich natural resource heritage, our physical environment, has been badly degraded-we are stealing it from our children.
Today Thailand is Bangkok. All wealthy and political bureaucratic power is concentrated in Bangkok to the severe disadvantage of the majority of Thais who do not live in Bangkok.
Thailand is awash with weapons of war. Upcountry, the rule of law is replaced by the rule of the gun, by the threat of coercion.
Our national system of land use, land titles and land ownership is chaotic. It favors the rich and powerful and is the source of many conflicts all over the country.
Our bureaucracy is bloated, outdated and inefficient. With few exceptions it doesn’t understand the concept of public service. The same can be said of our political system.
Again, this is only a partial list of our liabilities as a nation but it should be sufficient to remind us that rather than celebrating our past successes, the time is long overdue for us to address the more fundamental problems which have been ignored by previous governments.
That these fundamental issues have been ignored should not come as a surprise to any of you. Governments or politicians usually have short to medium term outlook.
Their horizons are bound by election cycles or the life expectancies of their terms in office. Few national leaders will commit themselves to addressing Fundamental problems which may take ten years or longer to show real results.
But this is exactly what This government is attempting to do. We are committed to tackling the fundamental issues facing the Kingdom of Thailand today, to initiating the process of radical, long-term reform.
In this regard education reform now assumes an even greater importance for a number of reasons :
Education is the most basic and far reaching reform program any society can embark upon since “going to school” is one of the few universal experiences through which all members of a society pass.
Education systems are usually regarded as one of the most change resistant elements in any society since their primary role has always been to reinforce the status quo.
In other words, throughout most of history, children have been taught what their parents already knew, that the future will be very much like the past.
The 20th Century is the first century in human history when this no longer holds true.
Education reform in Thailand is a test case of our ability as a society to re-engineer ourselves.
Without success in Education reforms the reform in many other areas of our society will be meaningless.
What are our chances of success?
What progress has been made since I initiated the education reform program in the middle of 1995 as Minister of Education under previous Government ?
To answer these Questions we need to construct a micro balance sheet focusing on the education sector, similar to the national-level macro balance sheet I outlined earlier.
Again lets start with our assets:
We have in place a massive educational infrastructure. The Ministry of Education has more than 600,000 staff and 40,000 educational institutions under my management.
As a society, the Thai people have traditionally accorded teachers great respect and status. And placed a very high value on giving their children the best possible education.
Statistics indicate Thailand has one of the highest literary rates in Asia. Nearly 98 percent of school-age children nation-wide complete at least six years of basic education.
In the recently completed third International Maths and Science Study, which surveyed the progress of half a million 13-year-old students from 41 countries,
Thailand ranked 20th in maths and 21st in science. Thai students performed better in maths than, for example, students from Sweden, Germany, England, Denmark and the United States. In science our students ranked above those from Hong Kong, Switzerland, Spain, France and Denmark,
The top four countries in the maths tests were Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong In science the top four were Singapore, the Czech Republic, Japan and South Korea.
This Government has typically invested about 20 percent of the national budget on education which compares quite favorably with other countries in the region.
This brief picture of Thailand’s education assets might seem to indicate that all is well in the world of Thai education. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth, as this list of liabilities shows:
Our education system subsidizes the rich and denies the poor. It was more expensive for the son of an upcountry farmer to attend an agricultural vocational college than one of Bangkok’s elite universities.
Our education system is more attuned to the needs of the 19th Century than those of the 21st Century.
We have downgraded the role of teachers in our society, keeping them poor and under-trained, Lacking the respect and honor that they deserve.
Our education system is autocratic and highly centralized. Teacher, students and parents have little say in the system.
School curricula have little relevance to the practical realities of life and pay no attention to local environments.
The physical facilities in many schools, especially upcountry, are in a disgraceful state of disrepair.
EDUCATION FOR LIFE
THAILAND’S MOST IMPORTANT CHALLENGE
A
Presentation by
His Excellency
SUKAVICH RANGSITPOL
Deputy Prime Minister
and
Minister of Education
Royal Thai Government
to the
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS CLUB OF THAILAND
2 April, 1997
Distinguished participant,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I wish to speak to you this evening as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education. This is because I wish to stress that education reform is not simply my vision. On the contrary, it is the very foundation of This Government‘s reformist policy platform.
Radical, sustained and far-reaching reform of Thailand’s national system of educations is seen as the critical path to achieve our priority goals of social equity and justice, of economic renewal for the new age of technology, and of political reform for the fulfillment of democratic principles.Those are high sounding words. Easy for government ministers to drop at the mention of a sound bite opportunity.
I would rather deal in reality so allow me to adopt the cold, calculating approach of the accountant and construct a balance sheet.
If we accept the role of government is to articulate the people’s long-term strategic vision for their country and to create the framework by which this vision can be most efficiently achieved, we need to have a clear understanding of where we are today as a nation, we need to have a clear and honest understanding of our assets and liabilities.
Allow me to start with the positive side, our assets:
We have inherited a proud past which included refined cultures and great cities equal to any the world has ever seen Archeologists say the Northeast of Thailand might be one of the birthplaces of human civilization.
Although we are predominantly Buddhists, all faiths are protected. This right of free religious expression is a great and valuable gift.
We as a society place great value on freedom of expression. This means that we all are able to talk, praise and criticize. Our media are among the freest in Asia, able to report on our Kingdom’s daily life.
This freedom of expression allows the construction of a national consensus, broad areas of agreement amongst us about how we wish to live our lives. About guiding principles. And this national consensus exists independent of politics, political parties and Parliament.
This national consensus is a valuable and sophisticated facet of our society. It is far from perfect since many people cannot make their voices heard to contribute to a true national consensus, but it is more developed than the current state of our political and government apparatus which is still struggling to understand this new idea of democracy.
In economic assets we have a rich agricultural base-we are one of the world’s greatest producers of agricultural and agro-industrial products.
Over the last 35 years we have been one of the most economically successful countries in the so-called developing world. From 1985 to 1995 we were the world’s fastest growing, free-market economy.
Economic statistics tell us that the average annual income for each Thai has increased from Baht 2,100 or 84 US dollars in 1961 to nearly Baht 75,000 or 3,000 US dollars today.
We have been one of the world’s most successful societies in terms of slowing the growth of our population-from 3.6% annual growth in 1960 to 1.3% today.
This means as a country our total assets are today shared between fewer people than would be the case if our population had kept growing very quickly. It also means the number of young Thais entering the workforce each year passed its peak and is now declining.
We have no foreign enemies threatening our borders from outside and no radical elements of society threatening instability from within.
This is a partial but impressive list of national assets and accomplishments of which we should all be proud and thankful. However, all is not well in our country as we can all too clearly see when we look at the balance sheet on the liabilities side-the negatives:
Our miracle economic performance has only benefitted a minority of the Thai people. Some 20 million Thais are a lot better off today but 40 million, the majority, have been left behind by this miracle.
Of all so-called developing countries Thailand now ranks in the top five in terms of income inequality. The proportion of the country’s wealth owned by the richest 20% compared with that owned by the poorest 20% shows one of the greatest income inequalities of any country in the world.
Our rich natural resource heritage, our physical environment, has been badly degraded-we are stealing it from our children.
Today Thailand is Bangkok. All wealthy and political bureaucratic power is concentrated in Bangkok to the severe disadvantage of the majority of Thais who do not live in Bangkok.
Thailand is awash with weapons of war. Upcountry, the rule of law is replaced by the rule of the gun, by the threat of coercion.
Our national system of land use, land titles and land ownership is chaotic. It favors the rich and powerful and is the source of many conflicts all over the country.
Our bureaucracy is bloated, outdated and inefficient. With few exceptions it doesn’t understand the concept of public service. The same can be said of our political system.
Again, this is only a partial list of our liabilities as a nation but it should be sufficient to remind us that rather than celebrating our past successes, the time is long overdue for us to address the more fundamental problems which have been ignored by previous governments.
That these fundamental issues have been ignored should not come as a surprise to any of you. Governments or politicians usually have short to medium term outlook.
Their horizons are bound by election cycles or the life expectancies of their terms in office. Few national leaders will commit themselves to addressing Fundamental problems which may take ten years or longer to show real results.
But this is exactly what This government is attempting to do. We are committed to tackling the fundamental issues facing the Kingdom of Thailand today, to initiating the process of radical, long-term reform.
In this regard education reform now assumes an even greater importance for a number of reasons :
Education is the most basic and far reaching reform program any society can embark upon since “going to school” is one of the few universal experiences through which all members of a society pass.
Education systems are usually regarded as one of the most change resistant elements in any society since their primary role has always been to reinforce the status quo.
In other words, throughout most of history, children have been taught what their parents already knew, that the future will be very much like the past.
The 20th Century is the first century in human history when this no longer holds true.
Education reform in Thailand is a test case of our ability as a society to re-engineer ourselves.
Without success in Education reforms the reform in many other areas of our society will be meaningless.
What are our chances of success?
What progress has been made since I initiated the education reform program in the middle of 1995 as Minister of Education under previous Government ?
To answer these Questions we need to construct a micro balance sheet focusing on the education sector, similar to the national-level macro balance sheet I outlined earlier.
Again lets start with our assets:
We have in place a massive educational infrastructure. The Ministry of Education has more than 600,000 staff and 40,000 educational institutions under my management.
As a society, the Thai people have traditionally accorded teachers great respect and status. And placed a very high value on giving their children the best possible education.
Statistics indicate Thailand has one of the highest literary rates in Asia. Nearly 98 percent of school-age children nation-wide complete at least six years of basic education.
In the recently completed third International Maths and Science Study, which surveyed the progress of half a million 13-year-old students from 41 countries,
Thailand ranked 20th in maths and 21st in science. Thai students performed better in maths than, for example, students from Sweden, Germany, England, Denmark and the United States. In science our students ranked above those from Hong Kong, Switzerland, Spain, France and Denmark,
The top four countries in the maths tests were Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong In science the top four were Singapore, the Czech Republic, Japan and South Korea.
This Government has typically invested about 20 percent of the national budget on education which compares quite favorably with other countries in the region.
This brief picture of Thailand’s education assets might seem to indicate that all is well in the world of Thai education. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth, as this list of liabilities shows:
Our education system subsidizes the rich and denies the poor. It was more expensive for the son of an upcountry farmer to attend an agricultural vocational college than one of Bangkok’s elite universities.
Our education system is more attuned to the needs of the 19th Century than those of the 21st Century.
We have downgraded the role of teachers in our society, keeping them poor and under-trained, Lacking the respect and honor that they deserve.
Our education system is autocratic and highly centralized. Teacher, students and parents have little say in the system.
School curricula have little relevance to the practical realities of life and pay no attention to local environments.
The physical facilities in many schools, especially upcountry, are in a disgraceful state of disrepair.