This government does our children no favours
The Nation
Short-term populist policies in education will leave Thai students at a serious disadvantage in a highly competitive new world
BANGKOK: -- In a fast-changing world and the challenges that come with it, many people in Thailand - from parents to business leaders - are wondering if children are getting the right kind of education needed to face these difficulties.
It is really sad to say that we have not seen any meaningful effort by the government to address this very important issue.
The fact that Woravat Auapinyakul stayed at the helm of the Education Ministry for just five months is testimony to the fact that this government is more concerned about helping its own people - Pheu Thai Party lackies who are waiting in line to be rewarded for their contribution to the party's election victory - than it is about the education of our young people.
Over this past decade, five administrations under the direct and indirect leadership of Thaksin Shinawatra have led the country. The post at the Education Ministry has always been given to the Thaksin camp. Unfortunately, nothing has improved. This is despite the fact that the government allocates a massive budget to finance educational programmes every year.
What we have witnessed over the years are short-term policies aimed at ensuring the incumbent government is re-elected.
Prior to coming to power in 2001, Thaksin's now-defunct Thai Rak Thai Party came up with the "One District, One Scholarship" project. The idea was to give students from rural schools a better chance to obtain a scholarship to study overseas. Cultural orientation was not taken into consideration, and one student committed suicide because of culture shock. The Lab School project sounded interesting at first, but when it came to implementation and handing over the needed resources and technical assistance, many began to have doubts about the sincerity of the government. There have been growing complaints from head teachers in rural areas who cannot find the money to maintain computers and IT infrastructure. The demands and expectations placed on these school directors were ridiculously high. One director in Narathiwat's Sungai Kolok district killed herself because she could not meet the expectations of the government, much less find the money to support the scheme.
Education was not exactly Thaksin's favourite political tool. He made a wise choice in 2001 by appointing Dr Kasem Watanachai as his first education minister, shortly after coming into power. But it didn't take long for Kasem to see the insincerity on Thaksin's part, and he decided to quit. Kasem was later appointed a privy councillor. After the resignation, Thaksin decided to take over the post. That lasted for five months. Over the next 18 months or so, Thailand would see three different education ministers - Suwit Khunkitti, Pongpon Adireksarn and Adisai Bodharamik, respectively. None of them are known as educators, although they are well versed in gutter politics.
Following re-election in 2005, the Education portfolio went to Adisai again, but soon afterwards it was passed on to Chaturon Chaisang, a man with a relatively better head on his shoulders than other Thaksin cronies previously appointed to the post. And then there was the coup of 2006, the dissolution of Thai Rak Thai, and the birth of its proxy, the People Power Party (PPP), which won the election in 2007. In line with past practice, PPP came up with populist policies that included high-speed Internet for schools and teachers' debt restructure.
After the court dissolved the PPP, the Pheu Thai Party, the latest Thaksin proxy, won a new mandate in late 2011. The Pheu Thai-led government announced a plan to hand out computer tablets to all students and revive the One District One Scholarship scheme.
No one doubts the popularity of these initiatives, but they will not address the shortcomings of our education system or improve the quality of our teachers. Our political environment is simply failing to help students face the challenges of the future.
Unless the government stops thinking about the ballot box and begins to focus on the real educational needs of our children, we can be certain that Thailand's youth will not be prepared for a more challenging tomorrow. And this includes the immediate future, with the advent of the Asean Economic Community in 2015. Thailand is now in serious danger of being left behind in the field of education. The most worrying part is that the longer we continue with short-sighted populist policies, the harder it will be to catch up with our neighbours and the rest of the world.
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