“Thai education reform is top priority”

In this article from the Bangkok Post, Thitinan Ponsudhirak addresses the student-led movement for education reform in Thailand. He paints a fierce and defiant image of students in their beliefs and desires regarding change in the country’s outdated education system. 

Thailand’s poor educational infrastructure contradicts their significant budget which is almost double the spending of China, the United Kingdom, and France in percentage of government budget. The money, it appears, has been used by unsuccessful and unreceptive policy professionals, cabinet members, and administrators who overlook student input. This modern movement for education reform is fueled by Gen Z students in Thailand who are crawling to escape the obedient, loyal citizen model which comes from, “a traditional political order revolving around nation, religion and monarchy.” It’s clear that this movement of the Thai youth is rooted in much deeper, systemic issues than course selection. Instead, the students are fighting against, as Ponsudhirak describes it, an outdated and backward indoctrination of “Thainess”. Their concern in educational efficacy is not rooted in career-readiness, but instead a lack of global citizenship teaching to stay on a par with the outside world. Students point to specific issues such as reinforcement of traditional gender roles in their learning as well as greater flaws like the disparities in quality of education between urban and rural communities. A more thorough, “global” education may include greater inter-disciplinary education, strengthened resources such as the internet, and, to no surprise, increased English-language literacy. Thitinan Ponsudhirak notes interestingly that while education reform has been a continual issue in Thailand, increased information through social media networks have sharpened youth knowledge and perspectives. 

Student desires reflect an anxiety to keep up and survive with the outside world in a time of exponential modernization. However, while the modernization they seek overlaps with actual teaching reform such as increased interdisciplinary studies, it’s clear that they are unsatisfied and exasperated with the more systemic issue of an outdated Thai indoctrination of citizenship. This distinction continues the repeated theme of education as a critical platform for societal behavior that I found in my most recent blog post. My last post centered on religious education reform in Indonesia. These two articles, while contrasting starkly in various facets such as identity of the advocates for reform, strategies for change, and goals of the reform, both seem to highlight education as a primary platform of focus in the greater ASEAN modernization movement. Whether it’s public officials attempting for greater moral development in response to increased violence, or students seeking freedom in the classroom as a means to escape traditional and outmoded citizenship, both groups see education as their intended targets to enact change. The Thai students’ goals, though, parallel more so with the Indonesian critics of the government proposal for education reform, which both point to generally misguided attention in attempts at education reform.

This article also reminded me of Fareer Zakaria’s interview with Lee Kuan Yew and specifically the thoughts on the emergence of novel ideas in modernization. In it, Zakaria questions the ties between economic and technological change with mind-set shifts, as well as the infusion of democratic and individual rights-based ideology with cultural diffusion of modernization. There is much to dissect in this section of their conversation, but I was particularly struck by the following comment by LKY: “They [the parents] had given their children a modern education in the English language and in the process lost their children altogether.” Although there are differing focuses between this comment, this section of the interview, and my articles, I believe that there is a connection in conceptualizing a modern education, the effect of global ideological diffusion, and the impact of education systems on society.

A section of Ponsudhirak’s conclusion perfectly illustrates my greatest takeaway from the article which I believe can be used to relate to and understand greater ASEAN themes of modernization: “…for Thailand, education has been as much about learning and knowledge, skills and training, as it has been about power, authority and hierarchy in a traditional political order around nation, religion and monarchy. Reforming Thai education as a system necessarily reforms Thailand as a country.”

Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1998931/thai-education-reform-is-top-priority