Education and language education and in Thailand

August 30 - September 5, 2005

Beyond theory

Vocational students get a bad rap,
but the practical skills they learn
may serve them far better than a basic degree

Story by ORATIP NIMKANNON

Several years ago, vocational schools were synonymous with unruly behaviour. Such was the media obsession with inter-school violence that these establishments arguably earned themselves a reputation as boot camps for brawlers.

Most recently, when university hazing rituals fell under the spotlight, media attention focused on the involvement of students from Rajamangala University of Technology Isaan. Whether or not hazing occurred elsewhere, the implication was that these activities take place predominantly at vocational and technical colleges, and that students at these schools are unruly thugs.

Believing this, however, is like believing that tom yum goong is all that Thailand has to offer. The fact of the matter is that vocational and technical students are, on the whole, dedicated scholars and community-minded citizens.

Their contributions to the community tend to come in the form of hands-on practical tasks such as constructing tsunami warning towers or making bulletproof vests for police.

It is this emphasis on putting knowledge into practice, says Dr Numyoot Songthanapitak, president of Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, that differentiates vocational students from their academic counterparts.

Unfortunately, it also means that vocational students often get seen as future blue-collar workers regardless of aptitude or academic success. Couple this with the negative media attention and a whole subsection of the student population is stigmatised.

“People may think of us as a wild bunch,” says one fourth-year Rajamangala student who asked not to be named, “but in my opinion, we are people with independent minds who are trained to be practical. Our straightforwardness prompts us to do what we think is right, without being afraid to point out what is wrong.”

It is this straightforwardness, says the student, that jars in a culture based on avoiding confrontation, being uncritical of others and saving face.

Building block

In actual fact, the vocational label no longer applies to students from many of these schools and colleges, following their transformation from technical institutions to technological universities over the past few decades.

Among the first to undertake the transformation was King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in 1971, followed by Rajamangala Universities of Technology in 1975, and Rajabhat Universities in 1995 (then Rajabhat Institutes).

“This evolution can be explained in terms of supply and demand,” says Dr Numyoot Songthanapitak. “On the supply side, educational institutions must evolve within the context of what goes on in the world,” he explains. Thus, technological universities now offer a broader range of subjects for study compared with when they first opened as small technical colleges.

“Then there is the demand for human resources that reflects back to us what we need to offer in terms of courses,” he adds, referring to the demand for higher education among the vocational group.

As is often the case, these changes can be several decades in planning. The Rajamangala Universities, as well as King Mongkut’s University and the Rajabhat Universities, started out as a collection of technical colleges that offered expertise in various vocational fields.

While King Mongkut’s University and Rajamangala grew from strengths in science and technology, Rajabhat progressed from its roots as a teachers’ college. From the beginning, these vocational colleges grew into technical institutes and, more recently, into technological universities.

The step up from technical college to institute has an important implication. It enables institutions to offer a bachelor’s degree level of education to vocational students, instead of limiting students to vocational diplomas.

Similarly, the next step from institute to university means the ability to provide doctorate degrees in specific technical fields. And as a university, opportunities for continuing education are extended to high school graduates of non-vocational schools.

Dr Numyoot explains that the ability to earn a higher degree is very important when students graduate into the jobs market.

“The pride of being a degree-holder will give these graduates a better status than those who only hold vocational diplomas and who are thought of as part of the lower spectrum of society,” he says.

From the students’ perspective, studying at a technological university offers more advantages than just status. “Our advantage is in the ability to put theory into practice,” says Siriwat Jintaworratham of Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi.

As a third-year mechanical engineering student, Siriwat is part of a team that has successfully modified the engine of a motorcycle to support the use of alternative fuels, mainly ethanol.

“Many of our inventions start as small in-class projects that grow into something that can be applied to and used in real working situations,” he says.

This framework for learning can create an ambition that constantly drives generations of students toward a higher goal, such as building a human-sized robot that can perform various human-like functions.

This project is being undertaken by graduate students at King Mongkut’s University of Technology, which houses one of the country’s leading research institutes in robotics science, the centre of operation for field robotics development (FIBO). Besides the ambitious scheme described above, FIBO is also working with the industrial sector on the integration of automation into the manufacturing process.

Dr Numyoot explains that the emphasis on hands-on learning does not mean that students who attend a technological university are weak on theory.

On the other hand, since one of Thailand’s competitive strengths is its labour market, producing skillful graduates helps to guarantee employment in the industrial sector after graduation.

“Now, as universities with different student inputs, the results will be different from when we were technical colleges,” he says. “But one thing remains the same: we will continue to emphasise practical learning.”

This attitude, along with efforts to diversify employment opportunities , explains why many vocational colleges transform themselves into technological universities. They are certainly not trying to shake off the vocational label.

After all, with their students gaining valuable and, more importantly, practical experience that reflects the changing needs of employers, why should they? If there is a problem with vocational schools, it lies not with the schools or the students, but in society’s attitudes towards them.

Case study
Central to the provision of practical education is the integration of hands-on internship programmes that develop students’ skills.

One such programme is the Cooperative Education and Engineering Practice programme at Rajamagala Universities of Technology. This programme requires its engineering students to spend at least 18 weeks — one academic term – working as temporary staff in a private organisation.

“In today’s world, classroom learning or practising in workshops is not enough,” says Dr Numyoot. “We must let students go out and experience knowledge from the real world. By doing this, we only hope that the jobs market will take in more of our graduates. If not, then we hope that they are equipped with the tools to go out and start their own businesses.”

In the scheme, universities cooperate with the private sector in drafting action plans and setting goals for students to meet. Unlike regular internships, where students may be assigned to work on unpaid irrelevant jobs, the cooperative education programme enables students to do field work as assistant engineers while earning a salary as temporary employees.

This way, students can assess their own skills while gaining valuable work experience and getting paid for the job they have performed.
If you have any questions or comments about this story, email me at oratipn@bangkokpost.co.th.

Thailand risks creating lost generation of child migrants: IOM

Thailand risks creating a “lost generation” of more than 100,000 migrant children who are stateless and deprived of education, the International Organisation for Migration said last week.

The children of migrant workers are not given Thai citizenship if they are born here, and because many of their parents are in the country illegally, most are not eligible for schooling, the IOM said in a new report.

“We have a generation growing up that is stateless,” IOM regional representative Irena Vojackova-Sollorano told a press conference.
Experience elsewhere in the world has shown that when a generation grows up without structure and without education or a sense of belonging, it is a potentially a generation that is “lost”, she said.

The IOM said that last year, the Thai government had registered almost 1.3 million adult migrants from Laos, Cambodia and Burma and found that they had 93,000 children living with them, including 63,000 Burmese children aged under 12.

Education ministry figures, however, showed that only 13,500 children under 15 years from these three countries were attending Thai schools. Children under 15 are not allowed to work under Thai law.

“These children are in a kind of limbo, not going to school, not legally being able to work, yet they're in Thailand,” said the report's author Jerrold Huguet. “So you can imagine the vulnerability of that very large population.”

Child migrants are learning to speak Thai almost as well as their mother tongue, but they are not learning either language well enough to be fully literate, he said.

“They're not really being qualified for future labour force participation in Thailand, aside from really unskilled minimum wage work. At the same time, they're not being qualified for returning to their home countries, so I think it is a very serious issue.”

The report recommended that the Thai government work toward ensuring all children born in Thailand receive birth certificates.

“It is strongly encouraged that children born to nationals of neighbouring countries are recognised as nationals by those countries,'' the report said. “The Thai government is encouraged to initiate cooperation with neighbouring governments in this regard.”

Thailand's education ministry was also urged to work with schools to ensure that its policy of universal access to education was enforced and applied to all child migrants regardless of their parents' status.

The report also said that some 500,000 Thai children aged under 14 years have one parent working overseas. AFP

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