For this reason, Thais’ reading habit did not immediately change even after the introduction of
Western-style education and schools. Texts were written and published for purchase by
students although these texts were written under the old paradigm of education which stresses
the importance of rote memorization, the only difference being that texts that were translated
from Pali are now replaced by those translated from English. Thai school texts today thus
mostly lack the aspect of academic “debate” and mostly contain easily understood summaries
without the need to know the source of the content that is required to be memorized. It is
almost no different from religious scripture.