The Korat Post

Thai Education Shows Growing Inequity

Hi from Trang,
To give 516 students from the rural working class ‘scholarships’ to study at a few elite Bangkok Mathayom schools (spending Bt 15 million!) is no solution to the problem of growing educational inequity in the country. The richest 20 per cent own more than half of the country’s assets, two-thirds of all the money in banks belongs to Bangkok residents, farmers have on average four years of education (“Huge wealth and education gap in society now: Kasem,” THE NATION, Nov. 11, 2004). UNESCO urges Thailand to do more for public education (“Education: “Thai lagging behind globally,” The NATION, Nov. 9, 2004).
Meanwhile, the present government has moved to encourage precisely the most experienced and qualified teachers to leave the system! The cost-cutting policy that has reduced the number of teachers across the country through the ruse of early retirement is a serious mistake. The country as a whole now lacks some 80,000 teachers! This policy, designed to destroy public education in the Kingdom, should be pro-actively opposed by all concerned. There needs to be action directly in the community, involving all stakeholders: teachers in the Khroo Sapa, school directors, concerned parents, the school kids themselves have to speak up. Committees should be formed to begin organizing public protest and to discuss counter-action.
Education should be a top priority in Thailand. Money is there. The upshot of present policy will be expensive private schools for the rich (45 international schools in Thailand, some charging 800,000 baht per year), a scattering of ‘elite’ schools in Bangkok and a few urban centers and understaffed overcrowded state schools for the rest of the people, a two-tiered system or worse. All the money passing hands in the form of ‘gratuities’ (petiya) to school directors to have children admitted to schools and the expensive ‘private’ classes spreading across the country are adding to the deepening inequity between ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots.’ More IT hardware and software to ‘replace’ teachers is not the answer.
Early retirement is a cynical move to dump experienced staff. Instead, make sure older teachers can stay on in some capacity AFTER the age of 60! The schools need all the expertise they can get. Not teachers rehired as ‘volunteers,’ that is absurd. Teachers rehired as ‘senior mentors,’ full-time, even beyond normal retirement. Preserve the expertise. The kids deserve no less.
Reinventing schools is a longer-term proposition: alternatives to the present curriculum in far too large classes need to be considered. Half-day school programs that get the kids out learning ‘holistically’ in the community are one alternative, as described in the new book by Dave Sobel, “Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities” http://www.oriononline.org/pages/ob/index_ob.html Ideas from North America at http://www.rethinkingschools.org are also worth considering. Thailand needs more of what is called ‘lateral thinking’ on how effective democratic schooling for all can be encouraged. Stakeholder committees have to be involved. It needs to be a grassroots campaign.
Bill Templer
RIT, Sikao, Trang