HUMAN RESOURCES

Some signs of progress

Somporn Thapanachai

Dr Rung: Tailor-made curricula under way.

EDUCATION REFORM has moved forward over the past three years despite five changes at the helm of the Education Ministry but more concrete programmes need to be implemented in the next five years for meaningful changes take hold.

In the overall educational framework, the ministry has extended the rights for students to receive state-subsidised free education from 12 to 14 years, or from two years of kindergarten up to Mathayom 6 or vocational training levels.

Meanwhile, compulsory education has been extended to nine years but on the negative side, the ministry has yet to recognise the status of some 800 Buddhism schools where novice monks receive training.

The University Affairs Ministry has been incorporated into the Education Ministry with the creation of four main commissions supervising basic education, vocational education, higher education, the Education Council and one administrative office, the permanent secretary's office.

As well, the ministry has divided the education system into 175 zones nationwide, giving zone supervisors and school administrators the authority to run the schools within their areas.

But despite being granted juristic status, many of the zone supervisory bodies are still reluctant to work independently as they are used to the old top-down management system, said Dr Rung Kawadang, a veteran education reformer who is currently an assistant minister for educational affairs at Government House.

It should also be noted, he said, that that the ministry has not yet given juristic authority to the provinces.

From a legal perspective, the government has held up 100 subordinated laws and ministry reforms and enacted 39 of them, consisting of four laws, 24 ministerial regulations, seven ministerial announcements and four ministerial rules.

Professionals in the education field are eagerly pushing for Parliament to enact a law that would regulate the administration of teachers and related personnel on the assumption that it would help smooth out the process of decentralising authority.

Critics of the Thaksin administration's education policy say the frequent changes in education ministers has led to inconsistency in the legislation process and that the ministry's structure does not support the complementary development of both public and private education systems, particularly at the higher levels.

Dr Janjira Wongkhomthong, president of the Association of Private Higher Education Institutions of Thailand, said the reform policy under the direction of the Private Higher Education Institution Act implemented in 2003 had not made any progress from a practical point of view because the law did not allow for flexibility among private institutions.

She said the current system authorised only one ministry to look after all levels of education from kindergarten to tertiary and therefore did not take into account the different practices and philosophies in teaching.

But some educators view the new structure more positively, saying that if reform is carried out in a proper way, only policy would be set by the ministry while day-to-day operations would be delegated to education institutions.

Dr Rung believes that since public schools and universities have already been granted juristic status to manage their own affairs, they should proclaim their "independence" from the ministry.

He praised the government's success in raising public awareness about the child-centred learning approach and for recognising that because of "differences" among human beings, varying education paths should be offered to support different interests.

"In the future, there will be individual assessments of students' talents in order to provide them with the right curricula," he said.

In a nutshell, Dr Rung concluded that Thailand already had clear policies, action plans, laws and communication infrastructure to support education reform but full implementation depended on the Education Ministry.

"Thai education could be reformed in three to four years," he said. "The process already has taken effect in many areas, spearheaded by 20,000 reform-minded teachers out of 600,000 in the system. The ministry must be serious in its actions to stimulate the reform and granting rewards to successful institutions."