A Critical Lens on Thailand Education: The Road to Succeed

Abstract

The situation of Thai education has been concerned in which all governments claim to have committed themselves to achieve in order to raise the standard of education to be on par with other countries. However, such aim sounds far more like rhetoric as opposed to reality. This can be observed from the results of national tests, such as O-NET test, scoring less than 50% at the basic education level especially the main subjects. In addition, the results of Non-Formal National Education Test (N-NET) showed that most of the students did not pass halfway scores and tend to decline particularly in basic subjects. Thai students were ranked 54 out of 70 countries comparing to the international competition in PISA assessment examined in knowledge of mathematics, sciences and reading. Hence, the development of Thai education should be prioritized and acted upon with a collective effort from all sectors in the society jointly addressed to the problem. This article aims to call for the strengthening in the effort of developing sustainable education and raising awareness of Thai people of the changes in the world. It also provides suggestions for solving Thai education problems to lead to quality education for a better society in which inequity is reduced in our present world.