Education, Economy and Identity

EDUCATION, ECONOMY AND IDENTITY

TEN YEARS OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN THAILAND

Cover and Layout: Mikael Brodu ISBN 978-616-90282-0-8

IRASEC, August 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or means, without prior permission of the author or the publisher. The opinions expressed in these papers are solely those of the author(s).

A collection under the supervision of Benot de Trglod

Education, Economy and Identity Ten Years of Educational Reform in Thailand

Edited by Audrey Baron-Gutty and Supat Chupradit

With contribution from Audrey Baron-Gutty, Chitrlada Burapharat,

Kwanchewan Buadaeng, Supat Chupradit, and Prasit Leepreecha.

In collaboration with the CELS (Center for Education and Labour Studies),

Chiang Mai University.

Carnet de lIrasec / Occasional Paper n11 2009

LInstitut de recherche sur lAsie du Sud-Est contemporaine (USR 3142 UMIFRE 22 CNRS MAEE) sintresse depuis 2001 aux volutions politiques, sociales et environnementales en cours dans les onze pays de la rgion. Bas Bangkok, lInstitut fait appel des chercheurs de tous horizons disciplinaires et acadmiques quil associe au gr des problmatiques. Il privilgie autant que possible les dmarches transversales. The Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (USR 3142 UMIFRE 22), based in Bangkok, Thailand, calls on specialists from all academic fields to study the important social, political, economic and environmental developments that affect, together or separately, the eleven countries of the region (Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam).

LE CONSEIL SCIENTIFIQUE DE LIRASEC

Jean BAFFIE, CNRS, IRSEA Bndicte BRAC de la PERRIERE,

CASE, CNRS, EHESS Sophie BOISSEAU du ROCHER,

Asia Centre Jean-Raphal CHAPONNIERE,

AFD Christian CULAS, IRASEC CNRS Gilles DELOUCHE, INALCO Jean-Luc DOMENACH, CERI,

Rseau Asie Evelyne DOURILLE-FEER, CEPII Stphane DOVERT, MAE Frdric DURAND, Universit de

Toulouse Alain FOREST, Paris VII Guy FAURE, IAO Michel FOURNIE, INALCO Charles GOLDBLUM, Institut

franais durbanisme Christopher GOSCHA, Universit

de Montral

Yves GOUDINEAU, EFEO Andrew HARDY, EFEO, Hanoi Jacques IVANOFF, IRASEC CNRS Franois LAGIRARDE, EFEO

Bangkok Christian LECHERVY, MAE Arnaud LEVEAU, IRASEC LE Huu Khoa, Universit de Lille Charles MAC DONALD, CNRS Rmi MADINIER, IRASEC CNRS Philippe PAPIN, EPHE Franois RAILLON, CASE,

CNRS, EHESS Jean-Franois SABOURET, CNRS,

Rseau Asie Christian TAILLARD, CASE,

CNRS LASEMA Hugues TERTRAIS, Universit de

Paris I Benot de TRGLOD, IRASEC Marie-Sybille de VIENNE, INALCO

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Table of Contents Contributors............................................................................................. 8

Note of Transliteration ........................................................................ 10

Acronyms .............................................................................................. 11

Glossary ................................................................................................. 13

Thai terms ............................................................................................... 13 Acts ......................................................................................................... 14 Introduction: Understanding the Challenges of the Educational Reform in Thailand .............................................. 15

Objectives of the study ............................................................................. 20 Methodology / Research Questions / Hypothesis ....................................... 20 Paper outline ........................................................................................... 21 Chapter 1 Reinforcing Thai wisdom with local curriculum at school ................ 23

Introduction ............................................................................................ 23 1. Sample Presentation and Background Information ................................. 25

1.1 Survey of schools ............................................................................ 25 1.2 Background information on the local curriculum ............................... 27

2. Actors of the local curriculum ................................................................ 29 2.1 Elaborating the local curriculum ...................................................... 29 2.2 Delivering the local curriculum ........................................................ 31

3. Content of the local curriculum ............................................................. 33 3.1 Challenges of the local curriculum .................................................... 33 3.2 Local wisdom vs. local curriculum? .................................................. 34

Conclusion .............................................................................................. 35 Chapter 2 Modern education systems and impact on ethnic minorities .......... 37

Introduction ............................................................................................ 37 1. Development of the modern education system in Thailand ..................... 38 2. The Hill Tribes of Thailand in the geopolitics of the Cold War ............ 42

EDUCATION, ECONOMY & IDENTITY

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3. Extending modern education to the highlands: the role of state agencies .......44 3.1 The Office of the Basic Education Commission ...................................44 3.2 The Non-formal Education Office .....................................................46 3.3 The Special Education Administrative Office .....................................46 3.4 The Border Patrol Police (BPP) Command Office ...............................47 3.5 The National Buddhism Office .........................................................47

4. Impact of modern curriculum on hill tribes ............................................48 4.1 School curriculum and teaching system in highland schools ...............48 4.2 Impact of formal education on the hill tribe people and community .....49

5. Attempts from Government Organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and People Organizations (POs) to reform education ....51 Conclusion: problems and challenges .......................................................53 Chapter 3 Vocational and cooperative education in Thailand: A Presentation ....57 Introduction ............................................................................................57 1. Vocational education in Thailand ..........................................................58

1.1 Historical background of Thai vocational education ...........................59 1.2 The vocational education in Thailand: Current structure .....................60 1.3 The present status of Vocational College in Thailand ..........................65 1.4 The role of vocational education in economic development .................66

2. Cooperative education in Thailand ........................................................67 2.1 The concepts of co-operative education .............................................69 2.2 Importing co-operative education in Thailand ...................................71

Conclusion ..............................................................................................74 Chapter 4 Fix-it centres: Adaptation and outcomes of the clusters of the poor. A case study in Chiang Mai ...............75 Introduction ............................................................................................75 1. Fix-it centres and the cluster policy ........................................................77

1.1 The theory of industrial clusters .......................................................77 1.2 Fix-it centres: a cluster-related organization .......................................79 1.3 Clusters of the poor? ....................................................................82

2. Case study of a Fix it centre project in the Chiang Mai Area ....................83 2.1 The fix-it centre stakeholders and their linkages .................................84 2.2 Activities of the fix-it centre .............................................................85 2.3 Assessment of the fix-it centre outcomes ...........................................87


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Conclusion .............................................................................................. 89 Chapter 5 Strengthening university-industry links through co-op education: Case studies in Thailand ...................................................................... 91

Introduction ............................................................................................ 91 1. Recruiting students for co-op programmes ............................................. 93

1.1 Background of the students ............................................................. 94 1.2 Selection process ............................................................................ 95

2. Setting up a relevant curriculum ............................................................ 96 2.1 Developing human skills for the working environment ...................... 97 2.2 Buttressing basic knowledge ............................................................ 98 2.3 Inculcating specific knowledge ........................................................ 99

3. Assignments in the workplace: The key role of the university supervisor .... 100 3.1 Internship vs. co-op ...................................................................... 100 3.2 The role of supervisors .................................................................. 101

Conclusion ............................................................................................ 103 Conclusion: The Need for a Real Educational Reform ..................... 105 References ........................................................................................... 107

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Contributors

Audrey BARON-GUTTY (Universit de Lyon, Institut dAsie Orientale) is a PhD Student in Political Science. Her thesis deals with the impact of globalization on the making and implementation of national educational policies, with a special focus on Thailand and its educational reform launched in 1999. She was sponsored for two years by the IRASEC to carry out her field work and the CELS (Centre for Education and Labour Studies), based at Chiang Mai University, provided her with institutional support. Chitrlada BURAPHARAT (Department of Arts, Media and Design, Faculty of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University) is a lecturer in Learning Process, and Information Design. She holds a doctoral degree in Adult Education (Workplace Learning and Change) earned at the University of Toronto. Her current research focuses on critical thinking, alternative teaching and learning; and competency development. She was in charge for three years (2007-2009) in supervising and designing cooperative education programme using French IUT 1 model for Modern Management and Information Technology (MMIT), College of Arts, Media and Technology (CAMT), Chiang Mai University. Kwanchewan BUADAENG (Department of Sociology-Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University) earned her PhD in Anthropology at the University of Sydney in 2001. She is a lecturer in Sociology and Anthropology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University. Her research focuses on hill tribes in Thailand and neighbouring countries, with a special emphasis on cultural and ethnic identities. Her previous works analysed both the impact of modernization and government policy on ethnic peoples' lives, and their responses to modernization and globalization. Supat CHUPRADIT (CELS, Faculty of Education, Chiang Mai University) is a PhD student in Research and Development in Education. His thesis topic deals with dual vocational training in secondary education in Thailand, and its role in skills and knowledge formation and transmission. He has taken part in CELS-conducted research projects, including the one funded by NRCT (National Research Council of Thailand) on education and poverty.

1 IUT: Instituts Universitaires de Technologie

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Prasit LEEPREECHA (CESD, Chiang Mai University) earned his PhD in Anthropology at the University of Washington, Seattle, in 2001. Presently, he is a researcher at the Social Research Institute and Center for Ethnic Studies and Development, Chiang Mai University. He is one of the editors of Living in a Globalized World: Ethnic Minorities in the Greater Mekong Subregion (2008), and Challenging the Limits: Indigenous Peoples of the Mekong Region (2008). His main interests include ethnic minorities in northern Thailand and mainland Southeast Asia, identity cultural change, tourism, and the impact of nationalism and globalization on ethnic minorities.

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Note on Transliteration

Thai words in italic have been transcribed using the Royal Thai General System, except when it was a quotation taken from another source. City names and Thai surnames follow the English spelling used in English-language publications. Some Thai phrases are put in [ ] which indicates that phonetic Thai was used to transpose them into the Western alphabet. Most papers or articles titles were transcribed by the contributors using phonetic Thai and not the Royal Thai General System.

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Acronyms BPP Border Patrol Police, supervised by the Ministry of Interior MOI

CAMT College of Arts, Media and Technology, Chiang Mai University

CBE Competency-based education and training

CELS Centre for Education and Labour Studies, Chiang Mai University

CESD Center of Ethnic Studies and Development, Chiang Mai University

CPT Communist Party of Thailand

DVT Dual vocational training (found in technical secondary schools)

ESA Educational Service Areas

GPA Grade Point Average; It refers to the grades pupils get in upper secondary education

HEC Higher Education Commission; It is part of the MOE and took over the duties held until 2002 by the Ministry of University Affairs

HWC Hill tribe Welfare Committee

IMF International Monetary Fund

ISO International Organization for Standardization

IUT Instituts Universitaires de Technologie: Higher education institutions in France that provide two-year technical programmes based on cooperative training

MMIT Modern Management and Information Technology, undergraduate, co-op programme at CAMT

MOE Ministry of Education

MOI Ministry of Interior

MOL Ministry of Labour

NEA National Education Act of 1999

NESDB National Economic and Social Development Board

NESDP National Economic and Social Development Plan, designed by the NESDB

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NGO Non-Governmental Organisations

NRCT National Research Council of Thailand

OBEC Office of the Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education

OEC Office of the Education Council, part of the MOE since 2002

ONEC Office of the National Education Commission; it existed until 2002 and was under the supervision of the Office of the Prime Minister. Now its duties and responsibilities are dealt with by the OEC, part of the revamped MOE

OPEC Office of the Private Education Commission, Ministry of Education

OTOP One Tambon, One Product

OVEC Office of the Vocational Education Commission, Ministry of Education

PO People Organisations

SUT Suranaree University of Technology

TQM Total Quality Management

TRC Tribal Research Center

UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization

VET Vocational Education and Training

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Glossary Thai terms [gaanseeuksaa lae feukohprohm baeepthaansamatthana]

Competency-based education and training

[neung dtam bohn neung phalit dta phan]

One Tambon, One Product (OTOP)

[Saang san khwaam ruu]

Create knowledge

[Suun saawm saang pheuua choom chohn]

Fix-it centres

[Thaay thaawt khwaam ruu]

Transfer knowledge

Amphoe District Archiwa sueksa Vocational education Changwat Province Chao khao Hill tribes Chumchon Community Kham Muang Northern Thailand Language Khru phumpanya thai Teachers of Thai Local Wisdom Kon juk Shave a topknot: ceremony held

when a boy becomes adult

Muban Village Orborjor . PAO: Provincial Administrative

Organisation

Orbortor . TAO ou SAO: Tambon (or Sub-district) Administrative organisation

Phra pariyati thamma Buddhist curriculum

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Phueng ton eng Self-reliance Phumipanya chaoban Local / popular wisdom Phuyaiban Head of the Village PorWorChor . Certificate of Vocational Education

Programme

PorWorSor . Diploma of Vocational Education Programme (less than a degree diploma)

Prachakon klai khamanakhom

The Welfare Committee for People Far From Road Access

Rak ya Grassroots Rong rian matthayom sueksa

Secondary school

Rong rian prathom sueksa

Primary school

Rong rian bamrung wicha satri

School to Teach Girls Only, established in 1901

Rongrian kwuat wicha Extra curricular or special tutoring schools

Sahakit sueksa Cooperative education Samnakngankhet Phuenthi Kansueksa

Educational Service Area ESA

Setthakit phophiang Sufficiency economy Songkran Thai New Year Tambon Sub-district Thetsaban Municipalities Acts (2551) [Phra raat cha ban yat gaan aa chee wa seuk saa 2551], Vocational Education Act 2008 2542 [Phra raat cha ban yat gaan sueksa 2542], National Education Act 1999

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Introduction Understanding the Challenges of the Educational Reform in Thailand

Audrey Baron-Gutty Modern education in Thailand started at the end of the nineteenth century

under the impulse of King Chulalongkorn. Many scholars tracing back the evolution from traditional education to a modern education system emphasized the feeling of necessity that motivated this transformation. Wyatt (1969), Mead (2004) and Watson (1982) underlined the need for a modern administration, to handle the Siamese nation-state as the Western states, and in that respect, the key role played by education to structure the new Siam and to appear to the eyes of the world as civilized (Peleggi 2002).

The shaping of a new education took place amidst strong political

struggles. Siam needed to stand firm within the regional arena, swept by the winds of Western colonialism. Internally, King Chulalongkorn had to legitimize his power and to unify the kingdom by integrating satellite kingdoms into a wider space, the Siamese nation state. Education was vital for this mission as it would contribute not only to bringing state power into the provinces through state-paid teachers and government officials, but also to transmitting a whole nation-related imagery to the young generations 2.

Giving rise to Thai-ness among the populations located at the margins of

the kingdom was a tremendous ordeal. In the Southern part of the kingdom, population was mainly Muslim, spoke Malay and felt culturally closer to the Malay state (Dulyakasem 1991). In the Northern part, incorporating the Lanna kingdom and hill tribe populations into Siam proved not to be easy. Ideological, 2 To further elaborate on that topic, see Vaddhanaphuti, C. (1991). Social and Ideological Reproduction in a Rural Northern Thai Schools. Reshaping Local Worlds: Formal Education and Cultural Change in Rural Southeast-Asia. C. F. Keyes. New Haven, Connecticut, Monograph 36/ Yale Southeast Asia Studies, Yale University Center for International and Area Studies: pp.153-173.


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social and national values were introduced into education delivered to students, and with the implementation of the Compulsory Education Act of 1921, school attendance tied children and parents to the nation state and made them liable to it.

If in its early years, Thai modern education was primarily focused on

creating a good Thai citizen, this vision started to change in the middle of the twentieth century with the beginnings of industrialization under the Sarit premiership. From the 1950s, next to nation-building, education started contributing to industry-building with the willingness to train rural workers for basic industrial work. Important tensions arose when Thailand launched itself in an export-oriented development in the late seventies: Education became more and more important to fuel production system with the needed human resources. But the educational structures were unable to adapt appropriately in terms of numbers and contents, and this was especially true in the case of the MOE (Ministry of Education) presented by its opponents as fossilized, over-centralized, and corrupt.

Whereas Thailand wanted to embrace a knowledge-based society in the

1990s, the demands emanating from the labour environment were not answered correctly, causing a real dichotomy between human capital aspirations and the training available. Reflecting the concerns of the business community, a committee was formed by the Thai Farmers Bank to tackle these issues. It released a report 3 in the mid-nineties in the hope of raising awareness and putting education upheaval on the political agenda. Moreover, criticism of state education was reinforced by political movements against centralization and Bangkok-based policy management. Critics asked for more democracy in the sense of more power devolved to local communities, to eradicate corruption, make politicians more accountable and avoid inept central decisions. These claims were especially present in the discourse of the localists, with for instance Prawase Wasi, or some civil society groups, such as the Assembly of the Poor. All these groups urged for change.

Political and social tensions sparked off and progressively led to civilian

governments away from military authoritarianism. This transformation was epitomized by the vote of the 1997 constitution, dubbed the Constitution of the People. The Constitution particularly emphasized the role of local governments and the importance of education. It called for a Law on National Education to

3 Commission on Thailands Education in the Era of Globalization: Towards National Progress and Security in the Next Century (1996). Thai education in the era of globalization: vision of a learning society. Synopsis of the report. Thailand.


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improve education to be in harmony with economic and social change, create and strengthen knowledge and instil correct awareness with regard to politics and a democratic regime of government with the King as Head of the State, support research in various sciences, accelerate the development of sciences, accelerate the development of science and technology for national development, develop the teaching profession, and promote local wisdom and national arts and culture. (1997 Constitution, section 81)

The 1997 economic crisis severely hit Thailand and accelerated the process,

leading to the passing of the educational law. Because of the crisis, all the problems related to education, such as Thai competitiveness or Thai identity were brought to the fore and considered as matters of urgency. The Thai educational system was seen as inefficient in the era of globalization, being unable to train the needed workers, or to drive political development away from corruption and cronyism. Moreover the irruption of the IMF and World Bank with their rescue packages hurt Thai feelings and led to the revival of nationalism: Safeguarding Thai identity and sovereignty was suddenly seen as vital. All these factors led to believe that a law was the solution to revamping Thai education. Those who had worked for that for more than a decade thought they had reached a victory (Pongwat and Mounier 2009 forthcoming).

In 1999, the National Education Act (NEA) was voted and launched what

was supposed to be the largest educational reform since the founding of national education in the late 19th century. Its scope was deliberately wide, with the reformists and then policy-makers having in mind a synoptic, total system reform (Fry 2002). Though incremental reforms had proved to be more feasible in many countries (Corrales 1998), the fathers of the 1999 educational law were ambitious in their vision, especially Rung Kaewdang, the then secretary general of the Office of the National Education Commission (Tan 2007).

The educational system was put under pressure to meet tremendous

expectations and the law stated that: The economic, political, cultural and social crisis has caused all concerned to realize the expediency for the reform of Thai education. The urgently needed reform will undoubtedly redeem the country from the downward spiral, so that Thailand will arise in the immediate future as a nation of wealth, stability and dignity, capable of competing with others in this age of globalization(ONEC 1999).

The NEA offered a framework to meet challenges presented altogether as

complex, straightforward, dramatic and urgent: Building an education fit for country unity, local differences and economic efficiency.


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In line with the 1997 Constitution, the NEA promoted decentralization and the empowerment of local communities (Del Medico 2006). In that sense, it offered the opportunity for schools to develop their own curriculum (section 23, NEA, 1999).

The Basic Education Commission [OBEC, Commission of the MOE] shall prescribe core curricula for basic education for purposes of preserving Thai identity, good citizenship, desirable way of life, livelihood, as well as further education.

In accord with the objectives in the first paragraph, basic education institutions shall be responsible for prescribing curricula substance relating to needs of the community and the society, local wisdom and attributes of desirable members of the family, community, society and nation 4.

This provision is known as local curriculum meaning that next to the core

curriculum, designed by the MOE, there shall be a local curriculum designed by the schools themselves. This has been dubbed the local content provision or the 30% local content provision as a ministerial decree specified that from January 2004 the proportion between local and core curriculum shall be 30:70 (Minister of Education 2003).

The local curricular development was seen as a way of giving education

back to the communities and also of strengthening local wisdom (Phumipanya Chaoban). With the influence of the strong localist group, represented for instance by Chatthip Nartsupha and Prawase Wasi 5, emphasis was put on the defence of local wisdom, understood as the overall Thai knowledge adapted locally but also as the knowledge originated from local and indigenous communities. To some extent, this fight to safeguard local culture and traditions, such as the ones of the hill tribes in Northern Thailand, despite modern education was very close to debates in other countries, such as the movement of Aboriginal or First Nations peoples 6.

The defence of local wisdom went in line with the trend that aimed at

reinforcing Thai culture and identity, but also with the sufficiency discourse

4 Emphasis added by the author 5 See for instance Nartsupha, C. (1991). The "Community Culture" School of Thought. Thai Constructions of Knowledge. M. Chitkasem and A. Turton. London, School of Oriental and Asian Studies: pp.118-141, Wasi, P. (1999). Setthakit pho piang lae prachasangkhom [The Self-sufficient Economy and Civil Society]. Bangkok, Rural Doctor's Publishing. On the localist movement, see Hewison, K. (2002). Responding to Economic Crisis: Thailand's Localism. Reforming Thai Politics. D. McCargo. Copenhagen, NIAS Publishing: pp.143-161. 6 See on that topic Battiste, M. and J. Henderson (2000). Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage: A Global Knowledge. Saskatoon, Purich Publishing Ltd.


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(Setthakit Phophiang), linked with King Bhumibol since his birthday address made during the economic crisis (Bhumibol Adulyadej 1997) 7. The local content provision in education was presented as a way of valuing local experiences and knowledge resources, and was as such well welcomed by teachers and parents. However, this has brought to the fore the struggles between safeguarding traditions and ensuring a suitable education for children to live and work in the contemporary world.

Giving more autonomy for educational institutions in curriculum

development could also be felt as problematic for the unity of the kingdom. As presented earlier, inculcating Thai-ness has been a key aspect of Thai education, showcased for instance in the presence of the three pillars of the nation in every classroom: the Thai national flag, Lord Buddha, and a picture of the King. But this ideological vision of education must be in line with both local aspirations and economic competitiveness.

This latter dimension was mainly portrayed by the willingness of the

government to build strong links between educational institutions and companies so as to boost up Thailands human capital capabilities and develop Thailand national innovation system 8. This vision had to be achieved through the development of vocational education (archiwa sueksa) and then, cooperative education (sahakit sueksa) programmes. The Vocational Education Commission therefore stated: The Thai Government has identified vocational education as a main tool in two of its high priority policy areas: poverty alleviation and the improvement of Thailands international competitiveness. 9

The educational reform was launched to balance national and local identity,

decentralization and international economic competiveness. Ten years later, it is now time to asses its results.

7 This discourse, crowned with the Kings halo, put the stress on the necessity for communities to be sufficient in their living and to develop their knowledge resources. It has been praised by many Thai academics and politicians, though its implementation and rationale are far from being clear-cut. 8 See the works of Patarapong Intarakumnerd on NIS in Thailand, for instance Intarakumnerd, P. (2005). "Government Mediation and Transformation of Thailand's National Innovation System." Science Technology & Society Vol. 10(No. 1): pp. 87-104. 9 Vocational Education Commission website, accessed on 20th Feb. 2009 and available at http://www.vec.go.th/iscripts/cmview.php?doc=doc/g0004/goingglobal.htx


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Objectives of the study This Occasional Paper relies mainly on field work. A more theoretical

analysis could have been conducted on identity questions, political conflicts related to decentralization or on the role of education in economic development. However, this is not the objective of this Occasional Paper. Instead, it is focused on case studies to extract valuable information from the field on the process and results of the reform. Most research material from this Occasional Paper is presented for the first time.

The NEA is considered by many researchers as a compromise between

divergent forces 10 and we wanted to assess how these opposing missions have been handled with and to what extent the orientations of the law have been implemented in practice.

Our study, focused on Northern Thailand, is the result of team work

involving European and Thai researchers. It provided an interesting exchange platform on the issue of education and training, and to bring to light the uphill challenges educational systems are facing worldwide.

Methodology / Research Questions / Hypothesis Concerning desk research, one major aspect of our work was to retrieve

documents written in Thailand regarding the different issues we dealt with. The methodology for field work differed from one chapter to another and will be presented separately.

The research questions that organize this publication are the following: 1 - To what extent has the educational reform in Thailand contributed in

reinforcing culture and identity? 2 - To what extent has the educational reform strengthened Thai human

capital? 3 - To what extent has educational management been decentralized?

10 See Part II of the book edited by Alain Mounier and Phasina Tangchuang, based on CELS work: Mounier, A. and P. Tangchuang (2009 forthcoming). Educational dilemmas in Thailand. Chiang Mai, Silkworm Books.


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Attempts were done by policy makers and different stakeholders to change Thai education in order to solve social, political and economic issues. The expectations were so high that it was difficult to think that they could all be satisfactorily met. Moreover, Thai policymakers are especially keen on borrowing ideas from abroad, such as the catchwords of clusters or cooperative education, to integrate them into domestic public policies. These two aspects, the over-sized scope of the reform and the strong tendency of Thai policy makers to use imported policy recipes, might have led to the shaping of a fuzzy, hybrid reform, with no clear or relevant results. This was the hypothesis we wanted to scrutinize through this Occasional Paper.

Paper outline This Occasional Paper depicts the tensions and challenges at stake in the

Thai educational arena since the 1999 National Education Act. Chapter 1 analyses data collated by the CELS (Centre for Education and

Labour Studies - Chiang Mai University) 11 regarding the local curriculum implementation in schools located in poor areas of Northern and Northeastern Thailand. By pointing out the actors involved in the creation and implementation of the local curriculum, and its content and perspectives, this chapter outlines to what extent the education system has been put in line with local aspirations.

Chapter 2 describes the introduction and the impact of the state-led,

modern education system on ethnic minorities, located in Northern Thailand, especially the tensions in terms of identity and culture. Interestingly, it investigates the current attempts made by the government, but also actors from the civil society, such as NGOs and Peoples Organizations, to create appropriate educational systems for hill tribes. This chapter is based on fieldwork carried out by the CESD (Center for Ethnic Studies and Development - Chiang Mai University) 12.

Chapter 3 presents the rationale behind vocational and technical education,

and also the concept of co-op education. It analyses how it has been brought into Thailand and how it has been integrated in the Thai educational system.

11 See the CELS blog: http://cels-thailand.blogspot.com 12 Their comprehensive website can be accessed on www.cesd-thai.info


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Through this chapter, we clearly see how the international environment and ideas have affected Thai educational policies. This aspect is reinforced by case studies presented in Chapters 4 and 5 that specifically attempt to show how these concepts have been adapted by and into the Thai context.

Chapter 4 focuses on a specific project called Fix-it centres, a cluster-

inspired programme involving vocational and technical colleges, community, and local authorities. Fix-it centres have been implemented since 2005 to boost Thai economic development at a grassroots level but also to promote decentralization, local authority involvement and community empowerment. However, the results are very different from those expected.

Chapter 5 analyses cooperative education programmes launched in

Thailand and involving higher education institutions and companies. In 2006, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) made co-op education 13 a priority, asking universities to fully take part in the project. This chapter, based on interviews of companies, students and head of co-op programmes from three public universities, assesses to what extent students training has been improved through these schemes and how university-industry interaction has developed.

13 Also known as cooperative education or dual education, meaning that students are trained alternatively in educational institutions and in companies

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Chapter 1

Reinforcing Thai wisdom with local curriculum at school

Audrey Baron-Gutty & Supat Chupradit

This chapter aims at investigating to what extent the local content provision has

changed the Thai educational system and has contributed to the reinforcement of Thai identity and culture. The purpose of the research was to see and examine how the local curriculum has been developed so far. Through questionnaires submitted in schools, it was possible to present the actors involved in the creation and the implementation of the local curriculum, but also the content of the local curriculum and its perspectives. Many challenges were pinpointed, questioning in essence the validity of the local content provision.

Introduction The national modern education system was established in Thailand in the

second part of the 19th century by the initiative of King Chulalongkorn (Wyatt 1969). The system that was then set up differed greatly from traditional education, centred on temple schools, family or apprenticeship within the community. In opposition, the main purpose of modern education was, at the beginning, to specifically train bureaucrats for the newly formed national administration (Mead 2004), but its scope has since been broadened. Nowadays, Thailand has nearly achieved universal primary education and high literacy rates. Opportunities to get access to secondary and higher education have also consequently increased.

Modern education has faced many criticisms in Thailand, including the one

of focusing only on global knowledge. The threat of an education not fit for the


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needs of the community 14 and not preserving traditional knowledge has been brought to the fore, especially by localists. Localism is a strong political group in Thailand, with public faces including Prawase Wasi, Sanek Jamarik or Chatthip Nartsupha. In the 1990s, the movement gained more visibility by linking its thinking to the sufficiency discourse (Setthakit Phophiang), supported by the King, and to the notion of self-reliance (Phueng ton eng), supported by Buddhist tenants. The localist discourse has indeed been articulated around the idea that a community should be sufficient, use and develop its own resources, either material, spiritual or cultural.

Since 1999, in a context where the Thai government has tried to support

Thai culture and genuine knowledge, it is not surprising that the localist ideas have even obtained more influence, and have therefore affected Thai educational policies. The National Education Act (NEA) insisted that all parties concerned in the community shall be involved to help learners develop their potentiality (ONEC 1999, section 24, item 6) and mentioned that basic education institutions shall be responsible for prescribing curricula substance relating to needs of the community and the society (ONEC 1999, section 23, paragraph 2).

As a consequence of the above, coupled with the Basic Education

Curriculum of 2001 (MOE 2001) and the points added by Ministerial decree (Minister of Education 2003), basic education institutions 15 would from then onwards teach both a national curriculum (70%) and a local curriculum (30%).

How has it been implemented so far in Thai education institutions? How

has it impacted on the safeguarding and development of Thai wisdom, term encompassing both culture and identity? If the idea has been well-accepted by the educational personnel and the different community stakeholders, it seems that the implementation has so far been chaotic, due to a lack of clarity, sufficient budget and organization support. This is what this chapter has attempted to study, supported by field work mainly conducted in Northern and North-eastern Thailand. 14 The term of community or chumchon, remains fuzzy in Thailand. What is really encompassed and meant by it is not clear. Community can hence be understood as neighbourhood, surrounding area, local settings, or more strictly a village or an urban district. In the idea of localists regarding education, it deals with taking children instruction away from public, nation-led school. This can be understood as returning to traditional institutions, such as temple-run schools, or developing community schools as in the United States by empowering parents, school leaders and stakeholders of the surrounding area. 15 Including therefore primary and general secondary institutions


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1. Sample Presentation and Background Information

The CELS (Centre for Education and Labour Studies), based at Chiang Mai

University, has been chosen by the NRCT (National Research Council of Thailand) to carry out a research programme focusing on the relationship between education and poverty. As part of their study, schools, located in poor areas of Northern and North-Eastern Thailand, were interviewed. We had the opportunity to access the completed questionnaires and to analyse answers referring to the implementation of the local content provision, both in a qualitative and quantitative way 16. Further details are presented in Point 1.1.

Adding up to that, we decided to carry out further interviews to study how

future teachers were trained for implementing, and therefore developing, this local curriculum in basic education institutions. In that respect, students in Bachelor of Education in higher education institutions in the North of Thailand were interviewed, together with lecturers involved in the B.Ed.

We also specifically focused on the curriculum of the Bachelor of Education

taught at Chiang Mai University, and also available on the Internet, to analyse to what extent local curriculum in schools, which shall represent 30% of the overall teaching hours, was taken into account in the training of future teachers.

We also went to different schools in the Chiang Mai area, including private

schools, to assess how they have put the local content provision into practice.

1.1 Survey of schools From the questionnaires available at the CELS, we only took into account

those referring to institutions delivering general education. The purpose was essentially to have a feedback from the field without pretending to have a representative sample of all schools. The sample presented below is therefore not at all representative of the Thai educational system structure.

16 For more details, see Baron-Gutty, A. and S. Chupradit (2009). The implementation of the local content provision in Thai basic education. Chiang Mai, CELS (Centre for Education and Labour Studies), available on http://cels-thailand.blogspot.com.


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Breakdown of interviewed schools per region, province, level of education, number of teachers and directors interviewed

Schools Region

Province Primary Secondary Primary &

Secondary*

Teachers

Directors

North Lampang 1 2 2 49 5 Chiang Mai 3 3 0 33 5 Uttaradit 1 2 2 50 5 North-East

Sakhon Nakhorn

0 5 0 51 5

Udon Thani 3 1 1 49 5 8 13 5 2 5 26 232 25

* The same school both teaches at the primary and secondary levels. Source: Baron-Gutty and Chupradit (2009)

Breakdown of interviewed teachers per level of education taught and age

Teachers Age Primary Secondary Total 20-30 11 11 22 31-40 13 17 30 41-50 26 62 88 50+ 40 52 92 Total 90 142 232

Source: Baron-Gutty and Chupradit (2009)


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In secondary education, each field is taught by one teacher, therefore the following breakdown was necessary. Breakdown of interviewed teachers at secondary level per field taught and age

Teachers at secondary level Age

Thai Maths Science SSRC* HPE** Arts Career/ Techno.

Foreign Language

Others***

20-30 1 3 2 1 0 1 1 1 1 31-40 1 2 3 2 2 3 3 0 1 41-50 13 7 5 10 8 4 10 4 1 50+ 10 2 7 9 3 4 5 7 5 Total 25 14 17 22 13 12 19 12 8

Source: Baron-Gutty and Chupradit (2009) * SSRC: Social Studies, Religion and Culture; ** HPE: Health and Physical Education

*** Counselling, Library Only a few questions asked in the questionnaire were relevant to our study.

We focused on them only. Interviews had been done in Thai by a team of interviewers that varied from one site to another, and this work had been carried out with the collaboration of Rajabhat universities 17 in their related geographical area.

1.2 Background information on the local curriculum Since 1997, one political aim has been to revive and strengthen Thai

wisdom, seeing as jeopardized by globalization and foreign influences. Education was presented as a significant actor in transmitting national heritage and therefore actions were launched in schools to help the nation reinforce its cultural basis. The Office of the Education Commission (OEC) defines Thai wisdom as the national heritage which helps solve problems and improves the quality of life of Thai people in line with their environment (OEC 2008).

Nine components were defined as part of Thai wisdom: Agriculture,

industry and handicrafts, Thai traditional medicine, natural resources and 17 Rajabhat Universities were at first the Teachers Colleges in Thailand, and then Rajabhat Institutes. Since 2004 and the Rajabhat Act, there have been known as Rajabhat Universities. There are 6 RU in Bangkok and 34 in the provinces. As a consequence of their new rank, they have diversified their teaching curricula, and do not focus solely on the training of teachers. This latter activity is shared with Faculties of Education in (older) universities.


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environmental management, community trusts and enterprises, fine arts, language and literature, philosophy, religion, and tradition. The ninth field is nutrition.

The defence of Thai wisdom has shifted to the protection of Thai local

wisdom, or more simply put, local wisdom 18. The explanation and the rationale behind this shift are far beyond the scope of this chapter, but can be briefly explained by the strength of the community culture movement and its revival in the last decades. Chatthip Nartsupha (1999) argued that village (or community) existed before capitalism and were the core of Thai political and economic structures. It is therefore time to come back to the roots of Thai organization, away from the nation-state and capitalist structures. This movement towards community has merged with the decentralization trend, advocated by those in favour of local democracy. Nowadays, everything (and everyone) in Thailand refers to community, and education is not the last field to be concerned with it, to say the least.

Reinforcing communities seemed to be achievable through the promotion

of an educational curriculum better focused on the communitys needs and resources. To develop the local curriculum, which measures were launched concretely in 2001, it soon appeared necessary (and that was actually the point of the whole process) for schools to ask people from the neighbourhood to come to school and share their knowledge with pupils.

Experts soon emerged, now labelled Teachers of Local Wisdom, and were

asked to intervene in school and transmit local knowledge to pupils. They are expected to be the living examples or role models for others and to transfer local wisdom through education (OEC 2008). A list of Teachers of Local Wisdom has been established and the persons we interviewed in different schools knew clearly who the Teacher of Local Wisdom in their area was, what his/her field of expertise was, and when he/she was listed by the Ministry of Education as such.

More than 90% of the interviewed teachers answered yes when asked

whether or not they integrate local wisdom in their teaching. 88% of the interviewed directors also agreed upon the statement that local wisdom is taken into account in the curriculum taught to pupils. But behind this apparent unanimity, there are some cracks: Some teachers confessed local wisdom was

18 See for instance OEC (2008). Nayobye Song-serm Poom Pan-ya Thai Nai Karn Jud Karn Suk-sa [Policy to Promote Local Wisdom in Education Management]. Bangkok, Ministry of Education.


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only integrated marginally, and it was difficult to do it. Some directors even mentioned that Local wisdom is not really integrated into curriculum but still the school must show some results. So behind the official blank discourse, what is going on? Has education being given back to communities? Has the local content provision changed anything in the Thai educational systems? The answers we gathered are articulated around two themes: The actors of the local curriculum and the contents of this curriculum.

2. Actors of the local curriculum Actors directly involved in the daily life of school mainly include pupils,

teachers and school directors. Of course educational policies designed by the Ministry have an influence on it, but on a day-to-day basis, these core actors are the roots of education. One of the aims of the local curriculum was to integrate people from the community (Chumchon) into this nucleus, to avoid the dichotomy between inhabitants and their local school.

The rationale behind the development of the local curriculum was therefore

to involve the local community in the elaboration and the delivering of a tailored curriculum.

2.1 Elaborating the local curriculum From the questionnaires in the school, we have tried to calculate the

contribution of people from the community in the elaborating of the local curriculum. The school directors mentioned that mostly teachers, school committee and parents took part in the development of the local curriculum. Other actors were also involved but to a far lesser extent (school director, teacher of local wisdom, community representatives, students/pupils).

Some schools we interviewed additionally mentioned that actions to

comply with the local content requirement were decided in teachers meeting, like a brainstorming session. An informant in a private school added that the key to local curriculum success is the recruitment of new teachers. All this information shows us that despite what was expected from the regulations, the key actors in constructing the local curriculum are not community stakeholders, but teachers.


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Teachers need to use their academic background and their experience to implement the local content provision because they have had limited, or no, on-the-job training on how to integrate local wisdom into their teaching or create a new course locally. However, in the sample we had, the younger the teachers were, the more positive they were towards the 30% local content provision. It could show that older, and therefore, more experienced teachers think it is not applicable or not relevant, but also that they are against innovation and do not want to change the way they have taught for many years. Whatever the real reason behind it, it shows that the training of new teachers is the key to the appropriate and efficient application of the local curriculum in Thai basic education.

We investigated the content of the curriculum taught in Bachelors of

Education in different higher education institutions in North Thailand. We first interviewed some students involved in this type of programmes. Some students were not aware of the 30% local content requirement, though most of them were in their 3rd or 4th year. Those who knew about it said they would like to know more on how to apply it when they are teaching.

The curriculum of the Bachelor of Education delivered at Chiang Mai

University is available online 19. We focused on the one entitled Bachelor of Education Programme in Elementary Education and looked for courses related to local wisdom or the teaching of local curriculum. We found two. The first is Learning resources and local wisdom. It is a second-year mandatory course that welcomes guest speakers from the surrounding area and mainly focuses on the specificities and characteristics of major festivals or regional historical features. The second is a fifth year recommended course entitled Community and school relationship development.

Though the 3rd year of this B.Ed. is devoted to the pedagogical and teaching

aspects related to each eight core courses of the Thai curriculum 20, there is nothing, as far as we have been able to see it, related to the teaching of local wisdom or the integration of a local dimension into the core curriculum.

As a matter of fact, though teachers appear as the key to the development

of local curriculum and its integration into the teaching process, little has been

19 CUR02005 Bachelor of Education Program in Elementary Education, accessed May 2009 http://mis.grad.cmu.ac.th/admission/default.html 20 Thai Language, English, Social Studies, Mathematics, Science and Technology, Arts Education, Work Careers and Technology, Health and Physical Education


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done to train them in that respect, whether they are still studying or already in service. Teachers interviewed in schools deplored the absence of training and support regarding the implementation of the local curriculum: Weve implemented it by ourselves. Only few guidelines were given and most of them were fuzzy in nature. Despite all of this, a kind of local curriculum has been designed and we will in the following section investigate who has been in charge of its teaching and how this has been structured.

2.2 Delivering the local curriculum From the questionnaires in the schools, we tried to calculate the

contribution of people from the community in the delivering of the local curriculum and were able to draw the following pie chart.

People involved in the teaching /

transfer of local wisdom in the school curriculum

80 %

16 %4 %

Teachers

People fromthe community

Teacher oflocal wisdom

Source: Baron-Gutty and Chupradit (2009) People from the community, mentioned by the interviewees, were mainly

monks from the nearby temple. Once again, the teachers have been designated as the main actors with regards to the delivering of the local curriculum. The chart also shows the importance given to the newly created Teachers of Local Wisdom. This can be explained by the fact that most teachers do not work in the area they are from and therefore need support from the outside to integrate local wisdom and resources. In that respect, they turn to the teacher of local wisdom.

However, the importance given to this new category of actors in education

is problematic. First of all, most of them ask for payment in exchange of their


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service and one teacher pointed out that there is a lack of budget to pay community participants and teachers of local wisdom. One of the directors mentioned that now budget from the government is only 1,000 baht for this provision. It has proved difficult for schools to attract people from the outside to be involved in the local curriculum.

Second, Teachers of Local Wisdom are treated as local gurus, meaning

they are seen as the expert in a field of local wisdom. The school often does not go any further in its development of locally related courses and thinks that the local curriculum should be devoted to the sole teaching from the Teacher of Local Wisdom. Emphasis is consequently put on certain fields of local wisdom, and others are completely neglected.

Schools have developed different ways to apply the local content provision,

the most popular being to include it in all core courses, or to create a separate course dedicated to local wisdom. The first option might be seen as a way of diluting local wisdom in all courses, therefore not specifically teaching it or taking it into account. One teacher said: we can integrate it in the whole year, but we cannot say it represent X hours per week. The second option refers to the teaching by the Teacher of Local Wisdom. In no case, however, does it represent 30% of the overall teaching hours.

Other options include focusing on one specific core course and integrating

local wisdom only in that course, and not in the others. It is indeed a widespread practice to concentrate the delivering of local curriculum on the Work Careers and Technology course and on the Health and Physical Education course. The mathematics teachers we interviewed confessed they do not know how to integrate local knowledge in the teaching of their academic discipline: Local content should be less than 30%. It is difficult to apply it in Maths.

Another option mentioned by schools to comply with the local curricular

requirement is to organize a day devoted to local wisdom activities. During that day, teachers of local wisdom are invited together with the parents, people from the neighbourhood, and monks from the temple. It consists of a local wisdom show with pupils taking part in activities such as traditional dancing, sculpture, drawings, or martial arts. The school also participates in big festivals, and teaches pupils dances or songs to be performed on the festivals day. This kind of activity, together with field trips organized during the year, allow the school to comply with the local curriculum regulations and they are acknowledged as such in the school assessment report, handed in every year, as part of the quality assurance scheme set up in every educational institution.


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Delivering local curriculum is not an easy task and depends greatly upon school resources, either intellectual or financial. Little support from the Ministry of Education (through its Educational Service Areas) or from local bodies (education departments of the Local Administrative Organizations 21) has been received, therefore leaving the schools on their own when creating or delivering local curriculum. They have focused on different objectives to implement local curriculum and on specific fields of local wisdom, therefore narrowing down its scope dramatically.

3. Content of the local curriculum As discussed earlier, teachers have been the main actors of the local content

implementation, either in creating it or in teaching it. Their vision on what local wisdom is has therefore had a great impact on it.

3.1 Challenges of the local curriculum The first purpose of the local curriculum was to safeguard Thai local

wisdom. The analysis of the attitude of teachers regarding the local curriculum tells us a lot on what their vision is. A question was asked whether or not 30% was appropriate for the local curriculum, with the answer being either too much or not enough.

Teachers who answered it should be more than 30% focused on social and civic

aspects of the provision. They said it was a way to increase links between community and school, but also to improve local knowledge sharing and understanding: Students will have more awareness about their community. They will love it.

Many teachers emphasized that local curriculum was a good way to help

students get vocational competencies and skills related to daily life. As a teacher put it, School should promote occupational skills for children so that they can work in the future. Interviewed schools, when implementing the local curriculum provision, focus mainly on vocational skills, such as the production of small handicrafts. Further elaboration on that topic will be done in the following section.

21 LAO include in Thailand municipalities thetsaban, Provincial Administrative Organizations orborjor, and Tambon Adminstrative Organizations orbortor


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In opposition, some teachers agreed upon the idea that local curriculum should represent less than 30% of the teaching hours. Most of them stated it was a waste of time at the expenses of core courses, especially because national tests, such as university entrance admission, do not include anything about local knowledge. They see the local curriculum as a hurdle towards higher education. One teacher even depicted the local curriculum as pointless: Students can learn from the community by themselves because that is the place they are growing up in; Core courses should be given more time.

For many years, Thailand has seen a sharp increase in private tutoring 22.

Most of pupils attend private courses after school 23. Some of them are even taught in the evening by their regular teacher, but in exchange of tuition payment. If schools spend less time on core subjects, isnt there a threat that the financial burden for the family will increase because of the necessity for children to attend relevant extra-curricular paid-tuition courses to fill in the gaps?

The financial aspects of the local curriculum have already been mentioned

as far as the organization of field trips and the payment of Teachers of Local Wisdom were concerned. However it is essential to bear this in mind when discussing local/global issues. If schools are to focus on community knowledge, how can students compete with the others during national tests? Local curriculum cannot be disconnected from the rationale of equity and of further education. It is not just an experiment to be tried in schools, it will also affect childrens future.

3.2 Local wisdom vs. local curriculum? We mentioned earlier that local wisdom in Thailand refers to nine fields but

when the local curriculum is taught in school, it focuses mainly on vocational skills 24, thus shrinking tremendously the scope of local wisdom.

22 On the issue of shadow education as a whole, see Bray, M. (2007). The shadow education system: Private tutoring and its implications for planners. Paris, UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning. 23 Extra curricular or special tutoring schools are known in Thailand as: rongrian kwuat wicha 24 In our study, this field encompasses different components of local wisdom: industry, handicraft, agriculture, food, cooking, and skills related to daily life.


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Some pupils as part of local wisdom related activities produce small handicraft. They then have the opportunity to sell it. Parents are quite happy with it as the following quote from one teacher shows: When pupils take part in these activities, it increases their ownership of local wisdom and it also increases the income of their parents, through the sale of products. The schools interviewed were situated in poor areas, and this aspect of the local curriculum (eg. the sale of small handicrafts) might not be predominant in all areas of Thailand. However, it emphasizes the idea that the local curriculum has mostly been dealt with in a vocational way.

This is backed up by the fact that local wisdom teachings have been

concentrated into the Work Careers and Technology course. Though a teacher stressed that the Career and technology course should not be limited to local wisdom only, it should be wider, in practice, it is where most of the local curriculum has been delivered. Why is it so? As teachers did not really know how to apply it, they focused on what they knew or what they thought local wisdom was. To use local resources and match community needs, it appeared logical for them to focus on vocational skill development.

As a consequence, in many schools we interviewed, local curriculum deals

with activities dedicated to the production of small handicrafts but also with preparing decorations for local festivals, or visiting local entrepreneurs to know more about their work. Cultural dimensions of local wisdom have not been forgotten, but mainly focus on the school taking part in festivals, such as Songkran Festival. In that respect, pupils are taught in the Health and Physical Education course traditional dances or classical drums. It is however striking to note that only in few cases was the importance of local language emphasized. This sounds paradoxical to us: How can local wisdom be strengthened while forgetting local languages?

Conclusion The idea of launching a local curriculum in addition to the one designed

nationally was aimed at strengthening Thai local identity and culture. This was the outcomes of the pressure of political groups who wanted to counterbalance the influence of globalization.

However, implementing it has been difficult. First, people in the commu-

nity have not sufficiently rallied the project and therefore the development and


36

teaching of the local curriculum has been left solely in the hands of teachers. It has also led to the creation of a new actor in education: The Teacher of Local Wisdom, also known as a local guru.

Second, schools have not only lacked training but also the necessary budget

to fully apply the local content provision. Therefore they have muddled through its implementation; the coherence and relevance of the local curriculum has greatly depended upon the schools resources, either intellectual or financial.

This has led to a situation whereby schools officially claim they apply the

local content provision, but in practice the results are confused and leave many questions unanswered. Moreover, local wisdom has been taken into account only partially, with an overwhelming emphasis on vocational aspects and little involvement from local communities.

Clear guidelines would have been needed to explain what was actually

expected from the local curriculum and to provide teachers with relevant instructions on how to achieve it. In that sense, the local curriculum could have been used as a strong pedagogical tool to boost up students potential by taking into account their cultural naive knowledge 25, while preparing them for a future in the modern world. However, it has so far not been used in that way.

This brief research demonstrates that educational policies in Thailand often

rely on catchwords, fuzzy enough to be consensual, hence hampering the real implementation of the project. Whereas the local curriculum could have been used to improve education, it has not succeeded in it, apart from a few cases showcased in the media or by the administration. This is mainly due to a lack of a real and effective implementation plan: Launching programmes or projects are not the most awkward part of the public policy process, their implementation is 26. The case of the local curriculum provision exemplifies this major weakness of public policies in Thailand that mainly focus on the decision and neglect the feasibility and sustainability of the programmes.

25 On naive knowledge, a key issue in knowledge transposition and in didactics in general, see for instance Champagne, A. B. and L. E. Klopfer (1983). Naive Knowledge and Science Learning. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers, New York. 26 See on that, Grindle, M. S. and J. W. Thomas (1990). "After the Decision: Implementing Policy Reforms in Developing Countries." World Development Vol.18(No.8): pp. 1163-1181.

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Chapter 2

Modern education systems and impact on ethnic minorities

Kwanchewan Buadaeng & Prasit Leepreecha

The development of modern education in Thailand aimed primarily at backing up

the foundation of the nation-state in a spirit of Thai-ness and modernity. In that respect, local cultures and identities were cast aside by the government. However, with the rise of communism in the region after 1949 and the support of Communism in border areas, the Thai government found it necessary to re-conquer these regions, and proceeded to do so via public education, among other solutions. The curriculum taught in schools did not take into account the specificities of the children who were taught the same subject and in the same language (Central Thai) as their lowland counterparts. Attempts have been made to improve education and safeguard local indigenous culture, showing the importance of keeping the opportunity for people to find alternative ways of development in an ever more complex world.

Introduction The development of modern education in the highlands of Northern

Thailand over the last fifty years was meant to enable young highlanders to gain more knowledge about the modern world and new technologies. By doing so, it was hoped they would be better integrated within the broad scope of society, and have access to more employment opportunities and a higher socio-economic status.

But only a few highlanders have benefited from this modern education

system. Many who had gained some levels of education did not have the chance to continue to higher education and compete with the majority for qualified jobs. Furthermore, modern ideology and knowledge inculcated in schools have increasingly replaced traditional knowledge and practices: Without them,


38

educated highlanders have found it hard to go back to their hill villages to live like their parents used to.

Modern education for highlanders has therefore been felt as an issue that

needs to be remedied. After describing the development of modern education in Thailand, this chapter provides details about the discrepancies and limitation of modern education in developing highlanders quality of life 27. It outlines attempts made by the state, especially through the local content provision, but also by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Peoples Organizations (POs) to develop alternative educational systems which would better serve the interests of the local and ethnic communities, and the nation.

1. Development of the modern education system in Thailand

The modern education system was established along with other modern

institutions at a time when Thailand was changing into becoming a modern nation 28. Before the modern system was established, two types of educational systems existed.

The first one was the royal school established to give education to royal

families: in the reign of King Narai Maharaj, education was prosperous.() According to the chronicle, Phra Trat Noi, King Pethrajahs son, had studied and was expert in many languages namely Pali, Sanskrit, French, Khmer, Laos, Vietnamese, Burmese, Mon and Chinese. He had also studied the horoscope and medicine from many teachers. The foundation of Thai language lessons was laid out since then. It is known that Phra Horathibodi wrote the Thai language teaching text, called Jinda-manee, and gave it to King Narai Maharaj 29.

The second system was the education for monks. A book written by a

French priest, published in 1854, depicted this system as follows: After or before

27 On the prejudices towards highlanders, see the comprehensive database collated by the CESD and available on its website, www.cesd-thai.info 28 The unification and centralization of the country took place during the reign of King Rama V around the end of the 19th century in the time of British and French colonization of Burma and Indochina. Before that, each region was autonomous and ruled by a specific royalty in each Kingdom, for example the Lanna Kingdom in the North. 29 http://www.moe.go.th (open on December 7, 2006), website of the Ministry of Education, in Thai, quote translated by the author


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the kon juk 30 ceremony, fathers and mothers will send their sons to stay at the temple to learn how to read and write. There, boys serve monks, row boats for them and eat food, which is offered to the monks, together with the monks. In exchange, the monks teach boys how to read books one or two times a day. For girls, there are cooking classes: pounding chilli paste, making sweets and also preparing betel nuts and leaves. 31

During the Ayutthaya kingdom period 32, especially during Phra Narai

Maharaj reign (1656-1688), foreign missionaries set up churches and schools to teach people who wanted to convert to Christianity. They taught not only religion but also other modern subjects. The Ayutthaya Kings sent many of their kin and close aids to study in those schools (Wyatt 1969). Some kind of modern instruction was therefore introduced in Siam, but schools were few in numbers and were not accessible to ordinary people.

The need for extended modern education began during the time Siam was

threatened by the British and French empires, which was under the reigns of King Rama IV and King Rama V. The British government successfully occupied the whole Burma in 1885, while the French colonial government had occupied most of the Indochina area before that. Siam lost the territory on the left of the Mekong River and important towns in the East 33 to the French in the very early years of the twentieth century.

To testify these changes, the colonisers wanted to initiate many treaties.

Thus there was a need for people who knew foreign languages as the record below demonstrates: In 1822, the British East India Company wanted to expand its trading to Bangkok. Makwis Hesting, India representative appointed John Crawford to be a consul to establish the agreement for cooperation. The discussion between John Crawford and Thai autocrats took place in a very difficult way because they could not directly talk with each other. Crawford had to speak English with his translator, who then translated into Malay for Thai translator who had to translate into Thai for the autocrat Because of this difficulty, in that time the agreement could not be reached. 34

30 Literally, shave a topknot. Traditionally, the central Thai boys had to wear topknots. The ceremony to shave a topknot was held when a boy becomes adult. 31 http://www.moe.go.th, website of the Ministry of Education (open on December 7, 2006) in Thai, quote translated by the author 32 The Ayutthaya kingdom which is widely known as Siam existed for 417 years, from 1350 to 1767 A.D. 33 The towns of Siemreap, Battabong and Srisophon 34 http://www.moe.go.th (open on December 7, 2006), website of the Ministry of Education, in Thai, translated by the author


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Next to these practical matters, and in the historical context of colonization, King Rama IV and others in the ruling class launched national reformation projects and set up a modern and centralized educational system in order to prepare people to have the same knowledge as Westerners. There was an urgent need to enter the modern era by developing the industry and trading sector, thus the demand for educated people who held new knowledge. Moreover, educated people were required to work in government organizations which were expanding to build the new nation.

The development of modern education started during the reign of King

Rama IV by sending young royal family members to study abroad. In 1871, King Rama V opened the Rajkumara (Prince) School in the royal palace. In 1887, the Education Department was established to oversee education and religious affairs. In 1892, the Dharmakan Ministry was set up to oversee education, religion, nursing and museums. The Ministry also encouraged Christian missionaries and private sectors to create schools. Schools for girls were set up such as Sawapha Girl School, established by Queen Somdej Phra Sri Patcharintra Borom Rajini in 1897 and the School to Teach Girls Only (rongrian bamrung wicha satri) in 1901.

In 1898, the government proclaimed a law to organize education at the

provincial level. The law emphasized that school should be spread nationwide, and use modern curriculum. The educational level was divided into pre-school, primary, secondary, occupational and higher education. Modern schools at the beginning were set up in the temples with monks serving as teachers; this allowed saving money by avoiding to build school buildings and to hire teachers. Only after 1909 were primary schools taken away from the Sangha 35.

The turning point of state-managed education was the Compulsory

Education Act, proclaimed in 1921 under the reign of King Rama VI. The Act demanded that every child, both boys and girls aged from 7 to 14, attend schools that were using the centrally-designed curriculum and Central Thai language as

35 More information on the development of state managed education on http://www.moe.go.th/main2/article/4-histo1.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki /Chulalongkorn. See also details on the change from temples managed education to state-managed education in Keyes, C. F. (1991). The Proposed World of the School: Thai Villagers Early into a Bureaucratic State System. Reshaping Local Worlds: Formal Education and Cultural Change in Rural Southeast-Asia, C. F. Keyes. New Haven, Connecticut, Monograph 36/ Yale Southeast Asia Studies, Yale University Center for International and Area Studies: pp.89-130.


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a teaching medium. The number of state schools increased from 275 in 1915 to 445 in 1922 36.

The change from an absolute monarchy to a parliamentary system in 1932

was another important landmark in the management of education by the state. Priority was given to education, and government plans stated that people had to get 4 years of primary school and another 8 years of secondary school education. The Thai government launched different programmes to broaden opportunities: non-formal education (for children who were not able to attend normal schools), special education (for disabled children), and welfare education (for children who could not access normal system schools due to socio-cultural problems) 37.

The state gave much importance to education as the primary means to

create national unity and to support modern economic sectors. With this in mind, schools were set up everywhere including remote and hill areas. The first school launched in the highland ethnic community was the Ban Lao Ta School in a Hmong village in Umphang District, Tak Province in 1935 38. In 1937, another school was set up in a Lua village in Bo Luang village, Hod District, Chiang Mai (Kosump 1984, p.18). In 1956, the Border Patrol Police (BPP) established a primary school for Akha students at Sa Ngo Village, Chiang Saen District, Chiang Rai Province. The BPP served as teachers but study materials were given by the Ministry of Education and student uniforms by the Public Welfare Department.

However, before 1956, although the state had set up some schools in ethnic

communities, there were still very few of them due to a limited budget and no road access. But the state started to be interested in the highlanders due to the Cold War situation and the fear that hill tribes living in border areas might take side with the Thai Communist Party.

36 Illiterate men aged from 20 to 45 years were even taxed to mobilize money to set up schools. This taxation scheme was however abolished in 1930 due to the world economic depression. See for more details, http://www.nfe.go.th/page_aboutus.php, site of Non Formal Education Commission (Commission of the Ministry of Education), page accessed on 10th May 2006. 37 http://sunsite.au.ac.th/thailand/education/edu_thai/special.html, website of Assump-tion University, Bangkok. 38 Tribal Research Institute, 1985, p.76, referred in Renard, R. D. and al. (1994). Twenty Years of Highland Health and Educational Development. Two Decades of Thai-UN Cooperation in Highland Development and Drug Control: Lessons Learned - Outstanding Issues - Future Directions. Paper presented at a seminar organized by the United Nations International Drug Control programme (UNDCP) in cooperation with the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), 20-22 June 1994, Chiang Mai, Thailand


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2. The hill tribes of Thailand in the geopolitics of the Cold War

The hill tribes in northern Thailand consist of ten groups: Karen, Hmong

(Miao or Meo), Mien (Yao), Akha, Lahu, Lisu, Lua, Htin, Khmu and Mlabri. It is estimated that, presently, there are about one million hill tribe people inhabiting the northern and north-western parts of Thailand 39. Though all groups have their specificities, they were subsumed under the broad category of hill tribes based on their mountainous habitat.

Traditionally, each highland ethnic group had its own knowledge and

culture epitomized in its language, costume, and house style. Their distinctive ways of life could be explained by their development in isolation caused by the remoteness of their habitat. Self-sufficient production was found among all groups, with the exception of opium, sold for family income by a few of them. Primary sources for food were household animal husbandry, local crops, and forest produces and animals. Knowledge supported daily necessities, and referred to cultivation techniques, hunting wild animals, gathering forest produ-ces, or herbal medicines, for instance. Their history and traditions were passed on orally to younger generations, as hill tribes did not rely on a written literacy.

Many groups were native of the area well before the creation of the modern

Siamese nation-state, but though they had long inhabited territories that were integrated into Siam at the end of the nineteenth century, the Thai government had not paid real attention to them until after the Second World War.

The attitude towards highlanders changed when the Communist Party took

over in China in 1949. The Communist movement influence in Southeast Asia started in the late 1950s, and communist propaganda among the hill tribes in mountainous area along the border of Thailand and Laos gained momentum in early 1960s. The Chinese Communist Party gave strong support to other Communist Parties in the Mekong region, and the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) built strongholds in the highlands and increasingly gained followers and supporters from highland ethnic groups. In 1965, the CPT began armed fighting against the Thai government. Within this context, and advised by US experts, the Thai government focused on the highland ethnic peoples, portrayed as a potential threat to Thai national security.

39 Department of Social Development and Welfare (2002). Highland Communities within 20 Provinces of Thailand. Bangkok, Department of Social Development and Welfare, Ministry of Social Development and Human Security and UNICEF.


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The Border Patrol Police were sent to border areas to contain communism but they faced many difficulties, notably the inability to communicate with local people, who spoke their own dialect and did not understand Central Thai. Communism containment also took the shape of the fight against opium cultivation; by cutting the poppies it was hoped that high profits from opium trade would cease and would stop to fuel the formation of armed groups that were threatening the established government. In the heart of the Golden Triangle, hill tribes were the first target of the poppy eradication programmes, sponsored by international funders, such as the United States or the United Nations. Parallel to that, Thai and international survey teams collected data on opium production, and the highlanders practice of opium cultivation in the highlands was made illegal in 1958 40.

Poppy eradication programmes put the spotlight on hill tribes and their

traditional agriculture methods were pointed at, especially slash-and-burn agriculture presented as backward and jeopardizing environment through deforestation. From the perspective of the government, such ways of life were primitive and needed to be changed. Therefore, socio-economic development projects were launched in highland ethnic communities in the mid-1970s. The projects focused on opium eradication and then on poverty alleviation, improvement of health conditions, nutrition, and literacy, keeping in mind the necessity of rolling back communism.

In that respect, education in state schools was essential to hook hill tribes

firmly on Thailand and deter them from being lured into communism. Teaching hill tribe people to speak, read and write Thai was essential to allow communication with government officials who were implementing development programmes. Governmental schools were a means to control hill tribes and integrate them into the modern society and economics, but also into the Thai ideological and political landscapes as the following sections will explain it further.

40 Cultivation of opium had largely gone on even after it was made illegal by the 1958 law. Only from 1984-1985, the cultivation of opium almost stopped after the Thai government used armed forces to slash opium poppies in the field annually.


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3. Extending modern education to the highlands: the role of state agencies

In 1951, the Thai state set up The Welfare Committee for People Far From

Road Access (prachakon klai khamanakhom), later renamed The Hill Tribe Welfare Committee (HWC) to focus on the hill tribes 41. Many projects were designed such as the establishment of the Settlement for Hill Tribe Welfare to contain hil

Education, Economy and Identity

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