EDITORIAL
School crisis needs more than idle talk
Lack of seats in secondary schools is a chronic problem in an education system that is fraught with challenges
For several years in a row, the problem of too many primary school graduates competing for too few seats in secondary schools in fast-growing suburbs of Bangkok has been given Band-Aid treatment: cramming as many students as possible into overcrowded classrooms. In many suburban schools, the typical class size is between 50 to 60 students, which is way above the maximum of 40 stipulated by the Education Ministry. As a result, the quality of teaching has plunged and the number of underachieving students has soared. With such huge class sizes, it is simply impossible for teachers, weighed down by punishing workloads, to give individual students the attention that they need to properly learn their lessons, leading to a large number of students failing to attain a passing grade. School administrators then sweep the dirt under the rug by lowering their standards to ensure that even the slowest laggards advance to the next level. This explains why so many secondary school graduates are found to be functionally illiterate. The Education Ministry and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, which jointly provide education services in the capital city, have done virtually nothing to improve the situation. In the meantime, teachers who are breaking their backs and earning barely enough to make ends meet, suffer from low morale and lack the motivation to provide quality teaching. But the problem of too many students and not enough seats is part of a vicious cycle that is making a mockery of the country's education reform efforts. The ministry knew that a total of 83,638 primary school students in Bangkok would go on to enrol in secondary schools at the Matthayom 1 level this year. Anyone capable of doing simple math at the ministry would be able to tell right away that the 976 schools in Bangkok with the capacity to seat 77,920 students based on a requirement that each class take in a maximum of 40 students, would not be able to accommodate all primary school graduates. The only logical conclusion is that more schools need to be built and more teachers hired. The prevailing attitude among top educators at the Education Ministry seems to be out of sight, out of mind. Suburban schools and their teachers are again asked to make the sacrifice by cramming in as many students as possible into their classes. In doing so, they lower their standards and continue to churn out too many misbehaving, functionally illiterate students who lack the discipline and the wherewithal to become responsible productive citizens when they grow up - let alone to further their studies. The Education Ministry should shake itself of its lethargic inefficiency and explore ways to not only increase the number of seats in public schools but also to improve the quality of education. At the same time, it should also encourage would-be entrepreneurs to get into the private school business to help balance the equation by providing them with investment incentives. Another innovative idea that is being successfully implemented in the United States and other countries is a public-private collaboration under which developers build schools and then lease them back to school districts for a profit. Such an approach would reduce the government's burden of spending a huge amount of taxpayers' money on school buildings. It would also afford the Education Ministry the flexibility to scale down the number of school seats according to demand, as these buildings constructed by the private sector could be converted for other purposes when they are no longer needed. Educators in this country have known for several years that Thailand has fared poorly in most educational quality and competitiveness rankings compared to many countries in the region despite the fact that it spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product on education - 5 per cent - than these countries. This suggests that Thailand still has much room for improvement in terms of education management. It must be remembered that education reform in this country must encompass more than getting education planners, school administrators and teachers to mindlessly parrot such mantras as "education management efficiency", "education quality assurance" or "child-centred learning" as if reciting them was all that mattered. To make education reforms happen, they must translate such lofty concepts into everyday reality.
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