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According to the World Bank, the past two and a half decades have seen the education levels in Thailand soar, with impressive figures on the overall net enrollment. With the majority of the kids receiving a mandatory 12 years of free basic education on top of the first three years of pre-primary schooling, the country has registered tremendous progress.
But in spite of this whole progress, the country’s overall quality of education is still wanting with local schools not delivering the required quality of education. According to the report, at least a third of 15-year-old Thai students are “functionally illiterate” and hardly understand English. What even saddens the most is the UNESCO findings that 12% of Thai students never achieve a minimum proficiency level in mathematics at the end of primary.
Accountability still lacks in Public Schools in Thailand
In a country where the accountability system of education in its local public schools is pegged on results rather than what the student actually learns, low quality of education is a no-surprise. The government seemingly never bothers to enforce regulations that would see the quality of education rise. Most notably, the country’s education sector is yet to create a rule on the teacher-to-student ratio in both primary and secondary schools.
The only system of evaluation that is centred on the student is subject to bias. That automatically means its reliability can’t be trusted, especially for a parent who would love to see the kid excel in the modern-day levels of education.
Another tale-tell sign that the quality of education in Thailand’s public schools is below the international standards is the syllabus that has been in existence for years. While international schools in Thailand and other private institutions are already tech-savvy, public schools are still lagging.
International schools are slowly remedying the situation
The government’s education sector’s reluctance to do a thorough revamp of the whole quality of education has left parents with one viable option – international schools. All the over 170 international schools in the country have consistently proved to be the only hubs of quality education in the country.
They have world-class facilities, adhere to a modernized international curricular and consistently churn out kids who end up in the most prestigious colleges and universities. What’s more, the schools excel in where the state schools fall short, including in teacher-to-student ratio, quality of learning environments, among others.
For ex-pats, diplomats and local kids, international schools are the ultimate go-to institutions of education. The education standards are higher than at Thai Government schools and, even though they are relatively expensive, the opportunities promised are incredible.
