Thailand plans educational reform, reduction in teacher production

BANGKOK, February 12 (TNA) - The Thai Ministry of Education has laid out the country's six-area educational reform plan, which complies with the national reform roadmap of the army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), covering the reduction in the production of teachers, as they outnumber market demand. Associated Professor Piniti Ratananukul, Secretary-General of the Education Council, told journalists on Thursday that the Ministry of Education's educational reform committee has formed six sub-committees to study education reform areas, including teacher production, resources for education, information technology (IT) for education, power decentralization to schools, education-related laws and learning reform. Associated Professor Piniti said that the sub-committees are expected to report the results of their study by next month. Regarding teacher production, Associated Professor Piniti acknowledged over 70 institutes, tasked with teacher production, have agreed that the admission of education students should be reduced, as the present production capacity stands at 50,000 graduates yearly, while market demand amounts to only 25,000 yearly, comprising 15,000 at public schools and 10,000 at private and local schools, with the difference resulting in the unemployment problem. According to the Education Council's chief, a legal amendment is also underway to transfer the Education Council from under the jurisdiction of the Education Ministry to the Prime Minister's Office and it will be renamed the National Commission for Education and Human Resource Development, in which guidelines for Thailand's education and human resource development will be set and education-related data will be gathered. Besides, the number of experts in the council will be cut from 59 to 20, with proposals for the change to be also submitted by next month. (TNA)