EDITORIAL : THE BANGKOK POST, THAILAND

 

Parties ignore education's ills

Education can bridge disparities, unlock prejudices and foster tolerance. But it can also widen the disparity gap and intensify conflict, if an education system perpetuates cultural values that sustain structural inequality.

Thailand is at a crossroads. To divert the country from a violent path, we need a system of education which fosters tolerance to the differences and responds to the diverse needs of the different groups in today's more complex and fragmented society.

Unfortunately, neither the Democrat nor Pheu Thai parties vying for political power in the July 3 general election, are offering any hope for change through their education policies.

Their populist packages may be different but are handouts all the same. Both parties are also similarly talking big, trying to outdo each other in the size of handout budgets. But neither of them touch the crux of the education crisis in Thailand, which is the centralised, Bangkok-centric education system that perpetuates disparity and brainwashes the young into submission to authoritarianism.

At a meet-the-press forum at the Thai Journalists Association earlier this week, Education Minister Chinnaworn Bunyakiat reportedly promised that the Democrats would increase education loans by 2 trillion baht, redesign the national curriculum and improve national education standards to make Thai students competitive in the world. He also promised a 13% raise in salary for teachers and one computer for every 10 students across the country.

Meanwhile, Pheu Thai's deputy leader Kanawat Wasinsangworn said his party promises free public wi-fi and a free iPad tablet to every student above Prathom 4 (Grade 4), in addition to special funds for every university to turn students into business entrepreneurs. Pheu Thai also promises teachers a debt moratorium and a tax subsidy for their first car.

Both parties will need not billions but trillions of baht to finance these pledges. It will not be their money. It will be the taxpayers' money. While Mr Chinnaworn said the Democrat Party would inject more money into the education system, it should be noted that he also has plans to close down small rural schools, and this will affect more than 14,000 schools in remote areas and 500,000 poor children nationwide.

Like the Democrats' computer project, Pheu Thai's free tablet programme raises public fears of big-time corruption and a waste of taxpayers' money since online infrastructure and computer literacy remain lacking.

Thailand's education budget, at 30% of the total national budget, is already among the highest in the world. Yet its quality is in a shambles. The school system is oppressive. The children do not think independently. The sole focus on academic excellence and imposition of Bangkok standards on the rest of the country also produce millions of dropouts. It is not that they are poor students. It is because this system cannot help students with different needs realise their full potential.

Decentralising education is the cure. But both the Democrats and Pheu Thai have avoided this like the plague. Indeed, why opt for reform when sticking to the status quo brings them both power and money through central budgetary control?

When national politics can offer no hope for education reform, local communities and private citizens will have to take things into their own hands. It is the only way to prevent their children's creativity from being throttled by the present education system.