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Thailand's novel education
policy
By James Borton
Pongpol Adireksarn, Thailand's minister of
education, knows a great deal about intelligence, and
the prodigious novelist intends to make sure that all
the kingdom's children get a fair opportunity to make
the grade to a better future.
The evangelist for
education and former head of central intelligence is
vigilantly making certain that the country's educational
system meets the rapid advancements and convergence of
information and communications technologies.
"I
intend to make sure that all of our schools are wired
and connected to the web," said the charismatic former
intelligence agent and writer of Tom Clancy-esque
thrillers from his expansive government office in
Bangkok.
Thailand suffered greatly in the Asian
crash of 1997, and much of the world's financial
community prematurely wrote the country off. Now the
nation is getting back on its feet, and it has witnessed
dramatic educational reforms. A key to Thailand's
educational initiatives is providing access to
information to the poor in the country's 76 provinces.
The sweeping changes mandated by the nation's
Educational Reform Act of 1999 are just now coming
online.
In the context of an increasingly
interconnected world, the importance of a
knowledge-based economy challenges developing countries
to adapt or simply be excluded from the global
community. With this advent of a new world order,
Thailand's education minister acknowledges that
widespread access to telecommunications networks, the
development of an educated labor force and consumers and
institutional capacity must be in place to become a part
of the new economy.
Some Southeast Asian
governments have responded in different ways to the
internal and external challenges created by information
technology (IT), telecommunications policy initiatives
and innovative educational reforms. Thailand's
information mandarins, including its former head of
central intelligence, believe that IT must be an
integral part of the country's economic engine if it is
to meet head-on increasing global market pressures.
"I do think there is an impact of the Internet
and IT literacy in Thailand," said Anthony P D'Costa,
associate professor of comparative international
development at the University of Washington. "The fact
is that schools and universities are being connected by
SchoolNet and UniNet and by 'distance learning'
technologies. The crucial question is to what extent the
number of users are increasing and in what way are these
new technologies being used."
In post-1997
Thailand, the new constitution called for
"decentralizing power to localities", and this included
the slumbering, bureaucratic educational system.
Adireksarn, a former deputy prime minister,
manages to make time to write novels in English and has
done so for more than a decade. He uses the pen name
Paul Adirex because it is easier for Westerners to
pronounce. "Sure, I understand the importance of
providing English-language instruction in our classrooms
and it is a daunting challenge," he said.
With
more than 2,000 secondary and 30,000 primary schools
teaching English, there is an urgent need for more
teacher training and orientation programs for the
underpaid teachers.
For many educational
observers, the timing seems perfect to implement
comprehensive online English-language learning programs
in the country. In fact, the reform act even calls for
technology to be implemented into the classroom. While
the Internet does provide an unlimited source of
software for English-language learning skills, many
schools in the rural districts still do not have enough
computers.
Impetus for educational change was
given a boost a few months ago when reformist Rung
Kaewdang was appointed to a key post in the Education
Ministry. His new role as Education Ministry permanent
secretary may serve to speed up the decentralization of
the bloated ministry administration.
In the
1970s and 1980s, Thailand had measured success in
providing all children with access to good-quality
primary education. However, expansion of opportunities
at lower and upper secondary levels, and in
post-secondary education, proceeded far more slowly.
During the past decade, Thailand's enrollment ratios at
these levels lagged far behind those of their
competitive neighbors, including Vietnam. With less than
40 percent of the Thai workforce completing secondary
school, government officials recognized the critical
need to broaden educational access, and this resulted in
"expanded-opportunity schools".
Senior officials
at the Ministry of Education believe it is imperative to
track students at an early age into vocational skills,
beginning even at the preschool level. In fact, the
government further stipulated the need to get more
students enrolled in agricultural colleges as part of
this new educational mandate. This program naturally
involves bringing technology into the classroom to use.
Richard Boyum, a regional language officer at
the US Embassy in Thailand, says some Thai schools are
already initiating an e-learning project with the
International Education and Resource Network (IEARN).
Additionally, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has
stepped up its collaboration with other governmental and
private sector groups to promote computer literacy and
online learning.
Despite problems with Internet
connectivity, namely slow connection speeds and in some
cases lack of access, the technology-driven MOE is
meeting some of its goals. A pilot project known as
SchoolNet has been launched to install Internet for
secondary schools in Bangkok and other provinces. There
are now more than 5,000 schools linked to the Internet
through a low-cost telephone dial-up access.
"Eventually, educational institutions at all
levels will be linked into a single network, known as
EduNet, which will make it possible to implement
learning programs that have a broad participation
capacity and that are accessible over a wide area," said
Doris Wibunsin, of Thailand's National Technical
University, in a recent article published by the
American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand.
In
1995 the Internet became more accessible to Thailand's
younger generation when the government established a
National Information Technology Policy. A cornerstone of
Thailand's educational reform policy is a commitment to
build a national information infrastructure to use
existing telecommunications resources, including a
nationwide fiber-optic network with satellites, and to
expand Internet service into remote rural areas.
Another key Thai project concentrates on
transferring IT knowledge to Thai children. Free
universal access was established earlier to celebrate
His Majesty the King's Golden Jubilee. The Kanchanapisek
Network Project provides limited access to the World
Wide Web to students and anyone with Internet access.
Since knowledge of English is one of the biggest
problems facing greater use of the Internet, the
government has been developing software to translate
English to Thai digitally.
The growth of the
information-technology sector in Thailand has been
noteworthy over the past decade. Many Thai citizens
utilize networked computers as both personal and
professional communication tools. According to the
National Science Technology Development Agency (NSTDA),
there are a little under 4 million individuals out of a
total population of about 63 million using the Internet
in Thailand, or less than 6 percent of the population.
Initially, like other emerging countries, instead of
promoting technology and Internet usage, the
government's first reaction to the new technology was to
reserve facilities only for state academic institutions
and government agencies.
The short-term
challenge is to keep students in school so as to prevent
any long-term damage to the country's future cache of
human capital. As part of this plan, the government is
racing to provide immediate job-training assistance to
government workers who require IT skills. With
Thailand's widening middle class, the government is
under increasing pressure for more allocation of funds
to meet the country's expanding educational
requirements.
Political uncertainty, changes in
the government, budget revisions, and corruption have
historically hampered growth both in Thailand's IT
industry and its educational sector. Thais have also
been discouraged by the predominance of English on the
Internet and in related software applications. Unless
Thailand develops more local software products and more
Thai websites, use of the Internet will be limited to
English-speaking Thais, a small percentage of the total
population.
According to recent surveys
conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce in
Thailand, foreign institutions offering online programs
and courses have identified a growing market of
customers. Despite the language challenge, the US-based
National Technology University continues to offer its
courses in Thailand.
"Here at the Kenan
Institute Asia, we are strongly supporting access to
online education offered by US institutions," said Paul
Wedel, executive director of the Bangkok institute. The
not-for-profit organization also provides ample
opportunities for American students to study in
Thailand.
The erudite educational cheerleader
Pongpol Adireksarn strongly believes that the use of IT
in education in Thailand will not be relegated to
science and technology alone, but will also include the
humanities and the arts. "We must grant all teachers,
college lecturers and professors, and all schoolchildren
and college students, opportunities to learn and use
information technologies. The objective is to use these
technologies as an enabling tool to access information
and gain knowledge from all the available channels and
disciplines," he said.
Thailand's newest
university, Mae Fah Luang in Chiang Rai, intends to use
English as the medium of instruction and is busy
recruiting a native English-speaking faculty. All this
seems to reflect MOE's increasing decentralization and
support for the emergence of private institutions of
higher learning.
While some technocrats
acknowledge that successful adoption of the Internet in
Thailand demands that technology adjust to Thailand's
social structures, Adireksarn, the minister of
education, best champions literacy by writing his own
novel experiences.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times
Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for information
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