87.6 The Importance of Educational System

Thailand’s education budget was accounted for 3-4 of the gross domestic products. A significant amount of budget was spent on higher education. The number of students entering higher education had declined from34.9 in 2005 to 24.2 in 2006. For the vocational education, most students were in the age range of 15-17 years old. The proportion of the students in this educational level had increased from 21.5 in 2004 to 24.2 in 2006. Office of the National Education Commission 2011 has reviewed the current situation of vocational education in Thailand and provided strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats as follows; Strengths 1. There are more than 800 vocational education institutions publicprivate all over the country. 2. There are 9 ministries responsible for human resource development. This can provide a variety of curricular and different forms of training to suit target groups. 3. The number of private vocational institutions is quite high, about 345. This shows their interest in participating in vocational education. Weaknesses 1. There is a lack of unity in terms of policy guidelines. The country does not have a master plan for human resource development. Therefore, the provision of vocational education is more supply-driven. 2. The most crucial problem is quality of the output. A significant number of graduates have weaknesses in both theory and practice. The issues of curriculum and the process of training must be addressed. 3. The lack of RD on vocational education to produce new technology and also generate new jobs. 4. The lack of qualified and experienced teachers. Most teachers do not have direct experience in the industry. 5. The lack of incentives for vocational teachers. 6. The lack of cooperation between vocational institutions and the industry. Opportunities 1. The constitution of 1997 and the National Education Act 1999 give high priority to education and vocational education. 2. Private organizations, such as the Federation of Thai Industry, the Council of Thai Commerce, are keen to play a role in the policy process, standard setting, quality assurance, and training activities. 3. The cabinet has just approved in principle on Skill Development Fund about 300 million baht which could promote the concept of lifelong learningtraining. 4. Thailand has an expanding infrastructure on information technology which could be utilized for vocational education and training. 5. The society is well aware of education and work. In the past, people had more value on certificate and diploma. 6. Thai labor force has a good potential. In the Skill Olympics, Thailand has improved every year from 1993-1999. Threats 1. The economic crisis in Thailand has made it very difficult to improve vocational education, particularly on large investments. 2. The state policy is not sustained due to the frequent change of governments. 3. Based on the existing human resource development programs, it is expected that Thailand would have a shortage in human resources in many industrial areas for the near future. In addition, Fry2002 suggested several crucial issues which occurred in the Thai educational systems, including higher education in Thailand. The first issue is about lack of unity and coordination of diverse and fragmented Educationhuman resources development efforts. Secondly, the problem is regard to overemphasis on bricks and mortar relative to investing in people teacher learners; researchers. Thirdly, inadequate utilization of information communication technology for improving human resource development led to the delay and inefficiency in the development process. According to the research report of Office of the Education Council 2004, another important issue in public funding to public educational institutions showed two major problems, an inefficient and ineffective financial management system and uneven advantage over private educational institutions. From statistics, over 70 percent of operating cost came from government budget while the rest of approximately 25 percent are from tuition fees. Comparing to the tuition fees of the private institutions, public institutions have three to five times lower. Another main problem of public fund was inadequacy of the budget. Most of the budget was spent on maintaining the operations, 30 were on buildings and equipments and limited amount of budget was left for quality development projects. However, the evidence from the United States indicated that funding problems may be unavoidable when the cause of the problem is external. According to NCSL Fiscal Affairs Program 2011, funding for all educational systems was reduced significantly and the major cause of the problem was economic recession. The economic recession has negative impact on public 173