Laws
and Other Basic Regulations Concerning Education
The basic guidelines and concepts of education in the country are contained
in the new Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand (1997).
Private education is regulated by the Private Schools Act
of 1982. According to the Primary Education
Act of 1980, primary education is compulsory.
It lasts six years and caters to children
of the age group 6-12 years.
In accordance with the National Education Act B.E. 2542 enacted
on August 1999, Thai people will have equal
right to receive basic education of quality
and free of charge for the duration of at
least twelve years. The Act represents an
unprecedented and long over-due break from
traditional Thai educational norms such as
lecturing and rote learning, as it sets the
foundation for a more creative, questioning
approach to studying. The Act also sets out
to decentralize finance and administration,
giving individual teachers and institutions
more freedom to set curricula and mobilize
resources, which in turn will tend to increase
accountability and ensure that funds are
targeted in the right areas. In order to
operationalize the National Education Act,
the Office of Educational Reform was established
in 2000 for a duration of three years.
According to Section 17 of the Act, compulsory education shall
be for nine years, requiring children aged
7 to enrol in basic education institutions
until the age of 16 with the exception of
those who have alredy completed grade 9.
It is expected that compulsory education
will be extended to nine years by 2004. |
