“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." by Nelson Mandela. Long time ago, in Thailand, people lived together under the power of the king. He had all the power and right on every life in the country. Time had been passed. Our world started to develop as it had been stepped in many revolutions. Through these revolutions, our national education had started to develop as well so Thailand’s education had followed that pattern. Thai education development had divided into three mains period of time: Sukhothai - Ayuthaya, The beginning of Bangkok Period and the present time. There was a big changed between the period which has made Thailand became a better country.
During Sukhothai period, Thai language was first invented by King Ramkamhaeng the Great. Later on two level of education had been invented. First was an education for princes and son of the nobles provided by the Royal Institution of Instruction. Second was provided by the monk to men who were 20 years old and above. Women were not allowed to learn. They were told to stay home and learned how to do house work. This system had been continued to Ayuthaya Period and the beginning of Bangkok Period. The problem of this system was an unequal between men and women. At that time women must stayed and learned to do house works only. Even though the system of Thai education had been changed during that period of time, women still had to do and learn about house work as well as listened to their husband and parents. They didn’t have right to speak out which leaded Thailand to be under developing country. Women were not allowed to attend any party or important meeting mean while other men from different countries were so proud to introduce their lady. These had made Thailand looked very wild and woolly to the foreign countries.
Thai government had seen the problem about an uneducated people. Plus, they want Thailand to start develop the country so Thailand will have big step forward. In the beginning of Bangkok period, English had become a lingua franca. King Rama IV realized that English was very important now. He started to provide the knowledge of English in the education because English would be the educational requirement. King Rama V had opened school for princes and son of novels to study no matter what age they were. That was the first time for Thai education system to have time-table and real teachers in the school which had been provided by the government. In 1897, Queen Sribajarindra also allowed women to attend to school. These had made changed to Thai education. The school levels were still a mysterious. Still, there are a lot problems occur due to the variety of age in the school. Imagine, if there were 60 years old man learn with 12 years old kid. Maybe it would be okay if both of them were not embarrassed to learn with each other. But we needed to understand that difference age of people their brains would process in the different ways. The government still needed to solve this problem along with the development of school system.
According to the paragraph above, it took several years for the government to find the possible solution. In 1898, the education plan from the Thai government had provided education had divided into pre-school, primary, secondary and technical education up to higher education. There was no limit of age to study. But in 1902, the government finally started the variety of age limits for the education system had been approved. In 1960 Thai education had extended to seven years of education. Later on it had been changed again into a 4-3-3-2 system (four years of pre-primary, three years of primary, three years of junior high school, and two years of high school only). The problem of this system seemed to be that they were not have enough time (years) to prepare for the university and there was only 12 years of education only which it didn’t reach the standard of National Education system. Thai education system had changed to be 3-6-3-3 system from 4-3-3-2 systems. “The National Education Development Plan was set up to create equal opportunity in education and to improve and develop the quality of teaching and learning. This plan has been successively implemented and now is in the eighth period of the National Education Development Plan (1997-2001).” Stated by Dr. Orathai Saksung, Thai education system had divided in to four levels; pre-primary from age 3 to 5, then six years of primary education, three years of junior high school and three years of high school. There was 15 years of study not include the university. For those who were old for school, the government now opened the adult education which will provide the knowledge and degree to those who wanted or just have a chance to study.
In conclusion, Thai education has been developed throughout many years. Now Thai Government still tries very hard to make Thai Education reached the standard of the National Education. Other countries do look at Thailand and say that our country looks very wild and woolly to them. Even until now, that’s one of the reasons for the government to start develop our education to be better and well known. Right now we still way behind compare to other big countries like America. The remain problems that have not be solved in Thailand are the gap between rich and poor people and learning process have not yet reached the goals or objective. The government has to solve this problem as soon as possible because there are a lot of poor people in Thailand who are uneducated. We need to provide an education for everyone in THAILAND. Remember that “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. – Nelson Mandela”