Thailand just started the second decade of her third large-scale educational reform, itself
launched from August of l999. The country’s first came as part of the big package of the overall
administrative/political reform in the second half of the nineteenth century when King Rama V of
the ruling Chakkri Dynasty (1868-1910) managed to avoid being colonized by dominant Western
powers at that time. In a nutshell, the country, then known as Siam, had to modernize all state
apparatus and demonstrate to the colonizing powers Siam was capable of managing state affairs
on her own. The second reform took place between l974-1978 and the third came following the
enactment and promulgation of the country’s first modern educational legislature in August of
1999, dubbed by many as the “Educational Reform Law.” Then, ten years went by quickly
leaving behind a very dismal success record and a myriad of both unfinished and badly needed
reform projects and activities. Only within the first decade of this third reform, 1999-2009, talks
about “low quality of education” were heard more often and commanded more public attention.