Bachelor of Education English majors demonstrate their teaching skills as part of their degree training.

Seminar urges govt
to rethink strategies

A recent seminar offers a ten-year plan to revamp
the Thai education system with the aim to produce top graduates

I found it refreshing that there were not only members from non-governmental organizations and experienced educators at this seminar, but also politicians.

Recent negative press has reported the Education Ministry as blaming the high rate of unemployment on small scale private universities set up to cash in on cash offered by the government to poorer students. It is thought that these universities have failed to meet the required job market demands. To combat this problem, the Higher Education Commission is instigating a 15-year plan to develop higher education.

The National Multimedia Group's (NMG) seminar, while discussing a 15-year roadmap for higher education, is putting forward a 10-year plan that involves children from kindergarten to undergraduate level. It is NMG's position that the government should not concentrate on just higher education alone.

Preparing early for the future

It is suggested that planning should start at the Prathom levels in order to produce good quality graduates. Many of today's plans focus on higher education without much thought being given to the primary or secondary levels. Integrating new policies at the Prathom levels that can be recycled through Mathayom and then University levels would, in my opinion, enhance the learning capabilities of our students.

Some education commentators at the seminar stated that education loans are given away too easily, causing problems when it comes to repayment. A new idea put forward is to allow students to repay the loan by serving the community. This would help students understand the value of money and benefit the local community also.

Another way to improve education is to reward tax incentives to businesses that are part of a new scheme to support educational innovation in the marketplace. In this way, the new potential workforce, business and the local economy benefit. Internet, technology skills and fluency in English were also areas highlighted for improvement due to the booming tourist industry in Thailand.

Management of schools a shared responsibility

Once more, I seem to be emphasizing the role that responsibility plays in today's society. It was suggested that school management should be a shared responsibility between the government and society. This allows the government to focus more on administration and leave curriculum development to schools and local communities.

The dependency on the government to set a model for the education system was highlighted by Viphand Roenpithya, president of the Asian University of Science and Technology, who argued that the system would change every time a new minister was appointed unless a different management strategy is adopted.

I believe that not everyone can be a manager. Some are born and some are made through their life's experiences. If they are really lucky they have received training in order to fulfil a management task at some time. It is time to decentralize the present system and let proven managers outside of the government manage our education system.

Arguments for and against vocational training

Manoon Sunkunakorn of Siam Cement emphasized an important point concerning the perceived importance of degrees in today's society. He said that companies have to retrain newly arriving graduates to give them real life working skills.

Vocational training has had its status enhanced over recent years in the UK with positive results over a broad spectrum of industry and commerce. Organizations such as City and Guilds of London Institute have been set up to promote vocational training and equate vocational standards to academic competence.

In my opinion this would be an area that could tap into untold resources in the job market and negate the idea that graduate students need retraining upon leaving university. If students acquired adequate skills in school, this would benefit employers and employees.

Steve Graham is an English language teacher at the Language Center, Udon Thani Rajabhat University in northeast Thailand. If there are any comments or areas for debate that you would like to discuss, you can contact Steve at: shed_chelsea@hotmail.co.uk .