In 1887, King Rama V established the Department of Education to oversee the Kingdom's education and religious affairs. At the time of its inception, the Department had under its jurisdiction, 34 schools in the metropolitan and provincial areas, 81 teachers and 1,994 students, including 4 other advanced schools in the metropolis. It is worth noting that the implicit significance of the establishment of the Department of Education lies not in the scope of its responsibilities but in the fact that education in Thailand was on its way to being a planned enterprise, more systematic than ever before, and that education also had its own spokesman to speak for its worthy cause.