Higher education system needs a dramatic upgrade

[Admin]

EDITORIAL

Higher education system needs a dramatic upgrade
The Nation 2011-10-17

Institutions are not generating critical thinkers or great technical graduates.

Thai graduates could easily fail to get a job if the people who interviewed them were Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs. Although Microsoft founder Gates and Apple's Jobs had a different view on the purpose of higher education, Thai students may well have failed either way.

Gates believes college students should be encouraged to enter "well-correlated to areas that actually produce jobs" to drive the economy, while Jobs had the view that "it's technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing."

Thai graduates may well fail both standards, based on the two gurus' philosophies. While Gates would demand graduates with specific skills to feed demand in industries, many Thai college graduates have found their curriculum too broad to enable them to excel in certain areas.

Critical thinking

At the same time, the curriculum does not provide an environment to promote critical thinking by students. Thus, they did not match the purpose of higher education that the visionary Apple icon spoke about. Jobs would want to see college graduates who are not afraid to think outside the box and have an ability to be resilient.

Unfortunately, these skills are not the focus of our higher education system. The Thai college system does not help to drive the nation, by preparing the best human resources so that the Kingdom is competitive in the future.

The failure of our education system was recognised recently in a report by the World Bank. The bank said that the education system in East Asian countries failed to produce graduates who could respond to the labour demands.

The report said institutions of higher education could realise their full potential by providing skills and research that spur productivity and innovation, which is critical to achieving growth in a competitive global environment.

Challenges for our country

The World Bank's comment was not a surprise. But it is relevant, especially for Thailand. Annette Dixon, World Bank country director for Thailand, said: "Thailand has grown rapidly over the last several decades, but still faces the challenge of sustaining growth and climbing the income ladder, requiring further improvement in productivity."

Even without the recent warning from the World Bank, there is a general consensus that the Thai education system has to be reformed to prepare our students to be competitive in the future. Although the world is changing fast, the format and content of our education system has hardly changed over the past half a century.

One does not have to look far to find out what kind of

graduates that colleges should strive to produce in the future. Based on his speech, Gates would want students who technically excel in the area they choose to pursue. Jobs, meanwhile, would want employees who can transfer their liberal arts knowledge across different industries and combine their passion and entrepreneurial spirit to create exciting innovations for the company.

Thai educational institutions, meanwhile, allow our students to graduate as mediocre employees who fear to make mistakes. They do not learn how to efficiently communicate by giving reasons and arguments. Thus, Thais generally don't take criticism well, as they tend to be shy about making comments, albeit constructively, because they did not want to offend their bosses or feared that their comments might easily be construed as a personal attack against others. This work culture does not support a spirit of teamwork or critical thinking.

Meanwhile, most of the curriculum in Thai colleges focuses on a classroom format, which does not provide situations for students in which they have to make critical decisions, as in real life.

This environment is not conducive to producing graduates with a fearless innovative spirit. In short, our education system is unlikely to produce iconic entrepreneurs like Gates or Jobs anytime soon.

[isanbirder]

Like most of these articles about education, the defects of Thailand's education system have been known for years.  But if you have, as I have, tried to convince the vested interests, the Thai ajarns, you would know why things haven't changed.