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Education, Economy and Identity

 | 
Supat Chupradit
, 
Audrey Baron-Gutty

Introduction. Understanding the Challenges of the Educational Reform in Thailand

Audrey Baron-Gutty

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1Modern education in Thailand started at the end of the nineteenth century under the impulse of King Chulalongkorn. Many scholars tracing back the evolution from traditional education to a modern education system emphasized the feeling of necessity that motivated this transformation. Wyatt (1969), Mead (2004) and Watson (1982) underlined the need for a modern administration, to handle the Siamese nation-state “as” the Western states, and in that respect, the key role played by education to structure the new Siam and to appear to the eyes of the world as civilized (Peleggi 2002).

  • 2 To further elaborate on that topic, see Vaddhanaphuti, C. (1991). Social and Ideological Reproducti (...)

2The shaping of a new education took place amidst strong political struggles. Siam needed to stand firm within the regional arena, swept by the winds of Western colonialism. Internally, King Chulalongkorn had to legitimize his power and to unify the kingdom by integrating satellite kingdoms into a wider space, the Siamese nation state. Education was vital for this mission as it would contribute not only to bringing state power into the provinces through state-paid teachers and government officials, but also to transmitting a whole nation-related imagery to the young generations2.

3Giving rise to Thai-ness among the populations located at the margins of the kingdom was a tremendous ordeal. In the Southern part of the kingdom, population was mainly Muslim, spoke Malay and felt culturally closer to the Malay state (Dulyakasem 1991). In the Northern part, incorporating the Lanna kingdom and hill tribe populations into Siam proved not to be easy. Ideological, social and national values were introduced into education delivered to students, and with the implementation of the Compulsory Education Act of 1921, school attendance tied children and parents to the nation state and made them liable to it.

4If in its early years, Thai modern education was primarily focused on creating a good Thai citizen, this vision started to change in the middle of the twentieth century with the beginnings of industrialization under the Sarit premiership. From the 1950s, next to nation-building, education started contributing to “industry-building” with the willingness to train rural workers for basic industrial work. Important tensions arose when Thailand launched itself in an export-oriented development in the late seventies: Education became more and more important to fuel production system with the needed human resources. But the educational structures were unable to adapt appropriately in terms of numbers and contents, and this was especially true in the case of the MOE (Ministry of Education) presented by its opponents as fossilized, overcentralized, and corrupt.

  • 3 Commission on Thailand’s Education in the Era of Globalization: Towards National Progress and Secur (...)

5Whereas Thailand wanted to embrace a knowledge-based society in the 1990s, the demands emanating from the labour environment were not answered correctly, causing a real dichotomy between human capital aspirations and the training available. Reflecting the concerns of the business community, a committee was formed by the Thai Farmers’ Bank to tackle these issues. It released a report3 in the mid-nineties in the hope of raising awareness and putting education upheaval on the political agenda. Moreover, criticism of state education was reinforced by political movements against centralization and Bangkok-based policy management. Critics asked for more democracy in the sense of more power devolved to local communities, to eradicate corruption, make politicians more accountable and avoid inept central decisions. These claims were especially present in the discourse of the localists, with for instance Prawase Wasi, or some civil society groups, such as the Assembly of the Poor. All these groups urged for change.

6Political and social tensions sparked off and progressively led to civilian governments away from military authoritarianism. This transformation was epitomized by the vote of the 1997 constitution, dubbed the “Constitution of the People”. The Constitution particularly emphasized the role of local governments and the importance of education. It called for a Law on National Education “to improve education to be in harmony with economic and social change, create and strengthen knowledge and instil correct awareness with regard to politics and a democratic regime of government with the King as Head of the State, support research in various sciences, accelerate the development of sciences, accelerate the development of science and technology for national development, develop the teaching profession, and promote local wisdom and national arts and culture.” (1997 Constitution, section 81)

7The 1997 economic crisis severely hit Thailand and accelerated the process, leading to the passing of the educational law. Because of the crisis, all the problems related to education, such as Thai competitiveness or Thai identity were brought to the fore and considered as matters of urgency. The Thai educational system was seen as inefficient in the era of globalization, being unable to train the needed workers, or to drive political development away from corruption and cronyism. Moreover the irruption of the IMF and World Bank with their rescue packages hurt Thai feelings and led to the revival of nationalism: Safeguarding Thai identity and sovereignty was suddenly seen as vital. All these factors led to believe that a law was the solution to revamping Thai education. Those who had worked for that for more than a decade thought they had reached a victory (Pongwat and Mounier 2009 forthcoming).

8In 1999, the National Education Act (NEA) was voted and launched what was supposed to be the largest educational reform since the founding of national education in the late 19th century. Its scope was deliberately wide, with the reformists and then policy-makers having in mind a synoptic, total system reform (Fry 2002). Though incremental reforms had proved to be more feasible in many countries (Corrales 1998), the fathers of the 1999 educational law were ambitious in their vision, especially Rung Kaewdang, the then secretary general of the Office of the National Education Commission (Tan 2007).

9The educational system was put under pressure to meet tremendous expectations and the law stated that: “The economic, political, cultural and social crisis has caused all concerned to realize the expediency for the reform of Thai education. The urgently needed reform will undoubtedly redeem the country from the downward spiral, so that Thailand will arise in the immediate future as a nation of wealth, stability and dignity, capable of competing with others in this age of globalization”(ONEC 1999).

10The NEA offered a framework to meet challenges presented altogether as complex, straightforward, dramatic and urgent: Building an education fit for country unity, local differences and economic efficiency.

11In line with the 1997 Constitution, the NEA promoted decentralization and the empowerment of local communities (Del Medico 2006). In that sense, it offered the opportunity for schools to develop their own curriculum (section 23, NEA, 1999).

12“The Basic Education Commission [OBEC, Commission of the MOE] shall prescribe core curricula for basic education for purposes of preserving Thai identity, good citizenship, desirable way of life, livelihood, as well as further education.

  • 4 Emphasis added by the author

13In accord with the objectives in the first paragraph, basic education institutions shall be responsible for prescribing curricula substance relating to needs of the community and the society, local wisdom and attributes of desirable members of the family, community, society and nation”4.

14This provision is known as “local curriculum” meaning that next to the core curriculum, designed by the MOE, there shall be a local curriculum designed by the schools themselves. This has been dubbed “the local content provision” or “the 30% local content provision” as a ministerial decree specified that from January 2004 the proportion between local and core curriculum shall be 30:70 (Minister of Education 2003).

  • 5 See for instance Nartsupha, C. (1991). The " Community Culture " School of Thought. Thai Constructi (...)
  • 6 See on that topic Battiste, M. and J. Henderson (2000). Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritag (...)

15The local curricular development was seen as a way of giving education back to the communities and also of strengthening local wisdom (Phumipanya Chaoban). With the influence of the strong localist group, represented for instance by Chatthip Nartsupha and Prawase Wasi5, emphasis was put on the defence of “local wisdom”, understood as the overall “Thai” knowledge adapted locally but also as the knowledge originated from local and indigenous communities. To some extent, this fight to safeguard local culture and traditions, such as the ones of the hill tribes in Northern Thailand, despite modern education was very close to debates in other countries, such as the movement of Aboriginal or First Nations peoples6.

  • 7 This discourse, crowned with the King’s halo, put the stress on the necessity for communities to be (...)

16The defence of local wisdom went in line with the trend that aimed at reinforcing Thai culture and identity, but also with the sufficiency discourse (Setthakit Phophiang), linked with King Bhumibol since his birthday address made during the economic crisis (Bhumibol Adulyadej 1997)7. The local content provision in education was presented as a way of valuing local experiences and knowledge resources, and was as such well welcomed by teachers and parents. However, this has brought to the fore the struggles between safeguarding traditions and ensuring a suitable education for children to live and work in the contemporary world.

17Giving more autonomy for educational institutions in curriculum development could also be felt as problematic for the unity of the kingdom. As presented earlier, inculcating Thai-ness has been a key aspect of Thai education, showcased for instance in the presence of the three pillars of the nation in every classroom: the Thai national flag, Lord Buddha, and a picture of the King. But this ideological vision of education must be in line with both local aspirations and economic competitiveness.

  • 8 See the works of Patarapong Intarakumnerd on NIS in Thailand, for instance Intarakumnerd, P. (2005) (...)
  • 9 Vocational Education Commission website, accessed on 20th Feb. 2009 and available at http://www.vec (...)

18This latter dimension was mainly portrayed by the willingness of the government to build strong links between educational institutions and companies so as to boost up Thailand’s human capital capabilities and develop Thailand national innovation system8. This vision had to be achieved through the development of vocational education (archiwa sueksa) and then, cooperative education (sahakit sueksa) programmes. The Vocational Education Commission therefore stated: “The Thai Government has identified vocational education as a main tool in two of its high priority policy areas: poverty alleviation and the improvement of Thailand’s international competitiveness.”9

19The educational reform was launched to balance national and local identity, decentralization and international economic competiveness. Ten years later, it is now time to asses its results.

Objectives of the study

20This Occasional Paper relies mainly on field work. A more theoretical analysis could have been conducted on identity questions, political conflicts related to decentralization or on the role of education in economic development. However, this is not the objective of this Occasional Paper. Instead, it is focused on case studies to extract valuable information from the field on the process and results of the reform. Most research material from this Occasional Paper is presented for the first time.

  • 10 See Part II of the book edited by Alain Mounier and Phasina Tangchuang, based on CELS work: Mounier (...)

21The NEA is considered by many researchers as a compromise between divergent forces10 and we wanted to assess how these opposing missions have been handled with and to what extent the orientations of the law have been implemented in practice.

22Our study, focused on Northern Thailand, is the result of team work involving European and Thai researchers. It provided an interesting exchange platform on the issue of education and training, and to bring to light the uphill challenges educational systems are facing worldwide.

Methodology/Research Questions/Hypothesis

23Concerning desk research, one major aspect of our work was to retrieve documents written in Thailand regarding the different issues we dealt with. The methodology for field work differed from one chapter to another and will be presented separately.

24The research questions that organize this publication are the following:

  1. To what extent has the educational reform in Thailand contributed in reinforcing culture and identity?

  2. To what extent has the educational reform strengthened Thai human capital?

  3. To what extent has educational management been decentralized?

25Attempts were done by policy makers and different stakeholders to change Thai education in order to solve social, political and economic issues. The expectations were so high that it was difficult to think that they could all be satisfactorily met. Moreover, Thai policymakers are especially keen on borrowing ideas from abroad, such as the catchwords of “clusters” or “cooperative education”, to integrate them into domestic public policies. These two aspects, the over-sized scope of the reform and the strong tendency of Thai policy makers to use imported policy recipes, might have led to the shaping of a fuzzy, hybrid reform, with no clear or relevant results. This was the hypothesis we wanted to scrutinize through this Occasional Paper.

Paper outline

26This Occasional Paper depicts the tensions and challenges at stake in the Thai educational arena since the 1999 National Education Act.

  • 11 See the CELS blog: http://cels-thailand.blogspot.com

27Chapter 1 analyses data collated by the CELS (Centre for Education and Labour Studies-Chiang Mai University)11 regarding the local curriculum implementation in schools located in poor areas of Northern and Northeastern Thailand. By pointing out the actors involved in the creation and implementation of the local curriculum, and its content and perspectives, this chapter outlines to what extent the education system has been put in line with local aspirations.

  • 12 Their comprehensive website can be accessed on www.cesd-thai.info

28Chapter 2 describes the introduction and the impact of the state-led, modern education system on ethnic minorities, located in Northern Thailand, especially the tensions in terms of identity and culture. Interestingly, it investigates the current attempts made by the government, but also actors from the civil society, such as NGOs and People’s Organizations, to create appropriate educational systems for hill tribes. This chapter is based on fieldwork carried out by the CESD (Center for Ethnic Studies and Development-Chiang Mai University)12.

29Chapter 3 presents the rationale behind vocational and technical education, and also the concept of co-op education. It analyses how it has been brought into Thailand and how it has been integrated in the Thai educational system.

30Through this chapter, we clearly see how the international environment and ideas have affected Thai educational policies. This aspect is reinforced by case studies presented in Chapters 4 and 5 that specifically attempt to show how these concepts have been adapted by and into the Thai context.

31Chapter 4 focuses on a specific project called “Fix-it centres”, a clusterinspired programme involving vocational and technical colleges, community, and local authorities. Fix-it centres have been implemented since 2005 to boost Thai economic development at a grassroots level but also to promote decentralization, local authority involvement and community empowerment. However, the results are very different from those expected.

  • 13 Also known as “cooperative education” or “dual education”, meaning that students are trained altern (...)

32Chapter 5 analyses cooperative education programmes launched in Thailand and involving higher education institutions and companies. In 2006, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) made “co-op education13 a priority, asking universities to fully take part in the project. This chapter, based on interviews of companies, students and head of co-op programmes from three public universities, assesses to what extent students’ training has been improved through these schemes and how university-industry interaction has developed.

Notes

2 To further elaborate on that topic, see Vaddhanaphuti, C. (1991). Social and Ideological Reproduction in a Rural Northern Thai Schools. Reshaping Local Worlds: Formal Education and Cultural Change in Rural Southeast-Asia. C. F. Keyes. New Haven, Connecticut, Monograph 36/Yale Southeast Asia Studies, Yale University Center for International and Area Studies: pp. 153-173.

3 Commission on Thailand’s Education in the Era of Globalization: Towards National Progress and Security in the Next Century (1996). Thai education in the era of globalization: vision of a learning society. Synopsis of the report. Thailand.

4 Emphasis added by the author

5 See for instance Nartsupha, C. (1991). The " Community Culture " School of Thought. Thai Constructions of Knowledge. M. Chitkasem and A. Turton. London, School of Oriental and Asian Studies: pp. 118-141, Wasi, P. (1999). Setthakit pho piang lae prachasangkhom [The Selfsufficient Economy and Civil Society]. Bangkok, Rural Doctor's Publishing. On the localist movement, see Hewison, K. (2002). Responding to Economic Crisis: Thailand's Localism. Reforming Thai Politics. D. McCargo. Copenhagen, NIAS Publishing: pp. 143-161.

6 See on that topic Battiste, M. and J. Henderson (2000). Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage: A Global Knowledge. Saskatoon, Purich Publishing Ltd.

7 This discourse, crowned with the King’s halo, put the stress on the necessity for communities to be sufficient in their living and to develop their knowledge resources. It has been praised by many Thai academics and politicians, though its implementation and rationale are far from being clear-cut.

8 See the works of Patarapong Intarakumnerd on NIS in Thailand, for instance Intarakumnerd, P. (2005). " Government Mediation and Transformation of Thailand's National Innovation System." Science Technology & Society Vol. 10 (No. 1): pp. 87-104.

9 Vocational Education Commission website, accessed on 20th Feb. 2009 and available at http://www.vec.go.th/iscripts/cmview.php?doc=doc/g0004/goingglobal.htx

10 See Part II of the book edited by Alain Mounier and Phasina Tangchuang, based on CELS work: Mounier, A. and P. Tangchuang (2009 forthcoming). Educational dilemmas in Thailand. Chiang Mai, Silkworm Books.

11 See the CELS blog: http://cels-thailand.blogspot.com

12 Their comprehensive website can be accessed on www.cesd-thai.info

13 Also known as “cooperative education” or “dual education”, meaning that students are trained alternatively in educational institutions and in companies

Auteur

Audrey BARON-GUTTY (Université de Lyon, Institut d’Asie Orientale) is a PhD Student in Political Science. Her thesis deals with the impact of globalization on the making and implementation of national educational policies, with a special focus on Thailand and its educational reform launched in 1999. She was sponsored for two years by the IRASEC to carry out her field work and the CELS (Centre for Education and Labour Studies), based at Chiang Mai University, provided her with institutional support.

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