Too many ministers and too many changes: Education reform ‘has gone nowhere’

People who attended the “Three Years, Three Ministers: Scrutinising The Progress of Thai Education Reform” event at Chulalongkorn University also heard a call to scrap O-Net (the Ordinary National Educational Test), the National Institute of Educational Testing Service (NIETS) and the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA).
Sompong Jitradap, education professor and head of Chualongkorn’s Research and Development Centre for Children and Youths, said education reform has been done conservatively by keeping content, curricula and old man-agement systems that could be traced back to 30 years ago and when the National Education Act 1999 took effect. 
Reform guidelines were unclear and no one felt like stepping forward to lead the way. But one laudable step was the cancellation of Teachers and Educational Personnel subcommittees, he said.
Thailand has had eight governments and 21 education ministers since 1999, Sompong said, each of whom had about six months and 16 days to work. Admiral Narong Pipatanasai, for example, could stay in the position slightly over a year; General Dapong Rattanasuwan had good policies, including reducing classroom time for learning activities and promoting educational access for poor students, but only held the post for a year and four months. Current Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin, who is determined to push reform, has had slightly over a year in the position.

‘Focus on quality’, Kriengsak suggests 
The NCPO had issued 146 orders under Article 44 of the Interim Charter - 16 of them related to the Education Ministry but mostly to tackle corruption and promote good governance, he said. With its top-down administration style, unstable politics and “too many” changes, these ministers only scored 3 out of 10 for their performance. So, the past three years failed to bring about any reform progress despite the special power, Sompong concluded. 
He urged the government to carefully review these matter and make decisions. One strong point, he said, was that the latest constitution carries many articles vital to education reform. 
The Education Ministry should also refrain from issuing unnecessary policies that only add to the burdens of officials and pull teachers away from the classroom. He also suggested scrapping the NIETS and ONESQA, saying the ministry should focus on bringing clarity to reform guidelines. 
Prominent scholar Kriengsak Chareonwongsak, who is a Senior Fellow from Harvard University, said the fact there had been many education ministers and a lack of progress on reform was partially due to the Thai culture of ignoring issues that can’t be resolved quickly and ignoring problems that are yet to have an impact “close-to-home”. 
He proposed that reform guidelines should focus on quality rather than quantity – teaching children how to think analytically, and ensuring PhD studies for both formal and vocational streams help to create a body of knowledge and innovation, as such studies indicate education quality. 
He also urged a decentralisation of administrative power and for officials to seriously tackle unequal access to education and improve the assessment system.
Anubal Satun School director Sutthi Saisunee said reform would be achieved if the key mechanism began in classes and schools, with teachers, students, parents and various sectors in communities. Teachers must aim to get pupils to face problems and analyse information for answers, he said.