3.1 Major Problems in Education
During the past decade, Thailand has achieved considerable success in quantitatively expanding primary, secondary, and higher education. Nearly all children now have access to a primary school near their village or home and increasing number of students are able to attend secondary schools and colleges. Also, the administrative system has become more deconcentrated. Despite such past success, several major problems remain for the 80’s, regarding issues of quality, relevance, equality, educational resource allocation and finance. Improving the quality of education and its relevance at all levels remains the major challenge of Thai education in the 80s. Given Thailand’s heavy dependence on imported energy,, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to increase the share of the public sector’s financial support for education. Thus, creative means must be found to increase private support. To achieve more equal access to quality of education, it is important that educational resources be allocated with the greatest possible equity and efficiency. The educational system must be developed so that it will be able to cope with the increasing demand for education and the problem of unemployment. Moreover, it would be adapted to provide for the needs of a largely modern society in terms of economic transformation, science and technology compatible with economic growth and international advancement, and beliefs, values and ideologies that are essential for socialization and societal survival. The duties and responsibilities assigned to education by society are quite a task, and tit needs quite an effort and investment to carry out educational improvement and reform in order to really meet the societal needs. The efficiency and effectiveness of implementation of educational reform require not only competent management and know-how, but also the ability to accommodate the education to socio-politico-economic environments. For the time being, the implementation of the 1977, educational reform is being followed-up and evaluated. The outcome of the evaluation is hoped to serve as a basis for further improvement. We have learned many lessons from the previous experiences of the educational improvement. Still, there are more lessons to learn and many tasks to undertake in order to meet the social, political and economic needs of the country.
