Education Reform Strategies and Guidelines towards Human Resource Development for The Economic and Social Era 5.0

Abstract

Thailand is facing rapid economic, social, environmental and digital changes.  Both the public and private sectors need to urgently review their strategies, especially their human resource development, a significant part of which is training and education.  They should work together towards successful education transformation that answers to the national economic needs.  Thailand’s economic reforms can be divided into different levels of development. It started at Level 1.0 focusing on the agricultural sector and evolved to currently Level 4.0, which relies heavily on data management. The path from now towards Level 5.0 is driven by digital technology.  On the contrary, the Thai education system has remained at Level 2.0 of development.  It means that the system is teacher-centric.  Students learn mainly through memorization.  Moreover, self-learning is not adequately and systematically encouraged, undermining the national human resources’ readiness for the future labor market.

                In the end, this article promotes that Thai students’ and workforce’s technological skills and capabilities with emphasis on innovation and artificial intelligence should be improved while encouraging their lifelong learning.  This article proposes strategies and guidelines towards human resource development for Level 5.0 of the economic and social progress.  Such strategies are called, “Sustainable Intelligence-Based Transformation (SI Model)” and are aimed to enhance Thailand’s competitiveness in the global market.