So, the Office of the Education Council (OEC) is preparing to propose government strategies to enhance the teaching levels and ensure quality education for all children in collaboration with the United Nations Country Team (UNCT).
The net enrolment for primary schoolage children in Thailand increased from 81 per cent in 2000 to 90 per cent in 2009. And, net enrolment for secondary schoolage children increased from 55 per cent in 2000 to 72 per cent in 2009, according to UN Data Online and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation Education for All Monitoring Report.
Meanwhile, learning levels of Thai children of 15 years of age have either stagnated or declined, according to results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which first conducted assessments here in 2000.
Representatives from related local and international agencies met at a seminar last week to discuss the situation and come up with ideas on how the government can deliver quality education for all.
A group discussion by representatives from international agencies at the seminar agreed that United Nations agencies would encourage the Thai government to analyse and solve its educational problems. UN agencies would provide educational knowhow and innovations to the government and would also run pilot projects to enhance the education quality in Thailand.
Five other group discussions were held about ensuring quality teaching and learning, linking education assessments to learning reforms, the private sector's role in education and quality learning, vocational education for a changing labour market and bridging the urban and rural divide in education.
Participants from the quality teaching and learning discussion agreed that teacherstobe should be trained by teachers who were role models and via real working experience so they can absorb and imitate good practices from their trainers and understand conditions of working in real life. Then they would be able to teach students effectively.
They also urged the government to seek measures that help students know which fields they want to study early so they can better prepare themselves for study and work.
Education assessment should be communicated seriously among institutions to make administrators and teachers understand that the assessment aimed to reflect their strong and weak points in a bid to encourage them to improve weak habits.
Thus, the assessment aimed not to discourage but encourage them to fix their weak points. Participants in the assessment discussion also urged the government to add competency tests to students' performance assessments.
Those who discussed the private sector's role said more and more students should do internships at real workplaces, while private institutions that can provide high quality education should be promoted.
They also urged state and private educational institutions to pool resources so they can manage the use of resources effectively.
More corporate social responsibility projects should be promoted with private companies to boost education.
At the discussion on vocational education for a changing labour market, participants proposed that groups of different professions lead vocational education development in collaboration with private and industrial sectors because they know and understand personnel quality problems and goals of quality improvement, while the government should support their work.
A mapping chart needed to be created to show problems of students' skills in different parts of the country after their skills were tested. Those with good skills would be trained and prepared for Asean labour market, while the rest with lower skills would be trained to work in the country effectively.
To reduce the educational gap between rural and urban students, participants at the bridging the urban and rural divide in education discussion urged local administrative organisations to be the main body pushing educational development in rural areas.
They should seek cooperation from locals, private companies and agencies in their communities to develop education.
Educational media could also bridge the gap, but the government should ensure that such broadcasts were shown or played at the right time of the day so it reached more students.
A draft of the proposals will be issued within two weeks and sent to all participants for review before being concluded and later submitted to the government, said Waraiporn Sangnapaboworn, director of OEC's International Education Development Centre.
The meeting titled Development Cooperation Seminar on Quality Education 'Quality Learning in Thailand: for Some or for All?' was jointly organised in Bangkok last week by OEC and UNCT.
-------------------------------------------------------------
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น