The government should map out a comprehensive blueprint covering kindergarten to undergraduate levels instead of focusing on higher-education development because that alone will not produce top-calibre graduates, a seminar was told last week.

The top educators, politicians and representatives of non-governmental organisations attending the Nation Multimedia Group's seminar on a "15-Year Higher Education Road Map" on Tuesday urged the government to churn out vocational graduates along with degree holders and offer tax incentives to the private sector for sharing expertise in teaching students.

They also revealed a 10-year plan to push teacher reform as a national agenda item.

Meechai Viravaidya, chairman of the Population and Community Development Association, said he wanted to see planning from primary to secondary levels because if both were good, then undergraduates would be of commendable quality.

His association is trying out an experimental teaching programme at Lam Plai Mat Pattana School in Buri Ram's Lam Plai Mat district. Ele-mentary graduates can speak English, use e-mail and look after other schoolchildren. Scholarships should not be easily given away, Meechai said. Children should be made to learn the value of money and recipients should be obliged to perform community service. In his association's case, the 1,400 students on its scholarships do not have to repay them in money but by their labour, doing work designated by people inside the community.

"We teach them that nothing is free in this world," he said, adding that study grants should only be awarded occasionally.

"We can build 1,000 more schools like Lam Plai Mat Pattana if the government lowers taxes for the private sector for their support of education," he said.

An award should be given to excellent teachers, nominated by locals rather than by principals, to show instructors their importance to the community. Parents were urged to teach their own kids to be good, not just toss that responsibility onto the Education Ministry's lap.

Korn Chatikavanij from the Democrat Party said education was important to the country's economic vitality. English-language skills were in demand because Thailand had a huge tourism industry. Elementary students must be fluent in two languages and IT skills.

Education management should not be left for the government alone, as the government needs to focus more on the administration of educational services, he said. Communities should participate in drawing up the curriculum for local schools.

Manoon Sunkunakorn, director of human resources at Siam Cement Group, said employers were looking for capable, honest, self-sacrificing, strong minded, self-developing, curious and studious graduates.

College graduates are like a clean slate and the company has to train them all over again, he said. In fact, technical graduates are better but society overly emphasises the importance of degrees. And that has led to the creation of degree-holders with no working skills.

A system is needed to have people who are good at what they do to be teachers, as well as to stimulate teachers to learn new things and adopt better teaching methods, he added.

Viphand Roenpithya, president of the Asian University of Science and Technology, said the education system should not depend on the government because it should be consistent, not changing every time a new minister comes in.

Universities should get together to set a good standard, the government should give tax breaks to private universities for their investment in education management and the Education Ministry should upgrade and improve itself, he said.

Viphand also suggested training teachers by sending them to camps to learn languages, maths and whatever else they lacked and rewarding those with advanced development every year.

"While old-style teachers will eventually fade out, new-generation teachers can learn, so we must train them. We can't leave them to fate alone and trapped in the old school system," he said.

Paron Issarasena, former president of Siam Cement Group, said Thailand should set a clear vision to foster learners and could learn that from Shell, which has been around for 200 years, because it has developed personnel study processes, including for teamwork and individual work.

Education for human development must start from kindergarten and go on through primary, secondary and undergraduate levels. The method should be student-centred and include morality in classes for young students, Paron said.

The private sector should get involved in schooling with the government's support. Teachers' salaries should be hiked to the market rate and not tied to official status ranking as it currently is.

The Education Ministry's regulations prompted teachers to develop themselves and abandon their students, Paron added, citing the example of some provincial teachers that have students help do paperwork in return for higher rankings.

Krissanapong Kiritikara, secretary-general of the Higher Education Commission, said overhauling teachers had been part of education reform since the time Chaturon Chaisang was minister but the change of ministers had caused inconsistency in the policy.

Education reform would create teachers with a strong awareness of the professional code of conduct. Reform must take place first before the country can generate better students, he said.

The commission has scholarships to a five-year incubation programme for teachers aged 30-50. They can learn about professionalism, get real-world experience working for business operators and engage in volunteer work to learn about society's expectations. Teachers over 50 mentor the programme participants.

Implementing the programme with higher-education teachers is easier because there are only about 50,000 of them while basic education teachers number about 600,000, he said.

Krissanapong proposed a long-term higher-education development plan that zeroed in on three issues. First, the university council would set the direction for universities in terms of teaching quality and the opening up of departments.

Second, the commission's Bt70-billion budget and the Student Loan Fund's Bt400 million were proving insufficient and new sources of funding must be found.

Third, universities must pay attention to academic quality, which means higher acceptance from local and foreign communities. The goal of higher-education development is to produce 150 institutions that know their abilities and do what they are good at and what the country needs, he added.

Universities should be categorised into three types, and one university can fall into more than one category. First, those to compete with other countries' institutions. Second, those that "return to reality", such as Rajamangala Institute of Technology, which cultivates manpower for industry. And third, those that teach students knowledge, skills and good virtue.

Kuakul Tasit, head of Kasetsart University Laboratory School's Centre for Educational Research and Development, said teacher development was the key factor in education development and it must be applied at all levels. She said she wanted consistent education reform to ensure serious attention to upgrading the education system.

Chularat Saengpassa

The Nation