The Problematique of Quality Education in Thailand : Material/Quantitative vs Abstract/Qualitative
Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: Thailand just started the second decade of her third large-scale educational reform, itself launched from August of l999. The country’s first came as part of the big package of the overall administrative/political reform in the second half of the nineteenth century when King Rama V of the ruling Chakkri Dynasty (1868-1910) managed to avoid being colonized by dominant Western powers at that time. In a nutshell, the country, then known as Siam, had to modernize all state apparatus and demonstrate to the colonizing powers Siam was capable of managing state affairs on her own. The second reform took place between l974-1978 and the third came following the enactment and promulgation of the country’s first modern educational legislature in August of 1999, dubbed by many as the “Educational Reform Law.” Then, ten years went by quickly leaving behind a very dismal success record and a myriad of both unfinished and badly needed reform projects and activities. Only within the first decade of this third reform, 1999-2009, talks about “low quality of education” were heard more often and commanded more public attention. Concerns about the country’s “low” educational quality across the board in the Thai educational system at present are both legitimate and justified. Apparently, they seem to receive unanimous endorsement from all relevant and concerned parties, educational and non-educational alike. What is obviously far from any possible unanimity is how those noble concerns are actually translated into practical actions. This situation should not surprise anyone familiar with the issue. What the government does to improve educational quality will certainly be either ridiculed or rejected outright or both by the opposition. Even among educational experts and/or educators themselves, there never exists unanimous agreement as regards the best/the most effective quality improvement approaches. Prof. Dr. Gerald W. Fry at the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development, the University of Minnesota, USA writes “Actually, there is broad consensus about quality as a desired educational outcome both in Thailand and globally. However, there is complex controversy... about the extent to which quality exists and how to move toward greater quality” (Mounier & Tangchuang, 2010, p. xi). To begin with and like in many other nations, Thailand’s educational system comprises three types: formal, non-formal and informal. Do the above concerns about the low quality “across the
Authors: Annop Pongwat, Phetcharee Rupavijetra
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W272295641