MoE towards ASEAN Community

(03-06-2013)

The Assistant to the Education Minister, Dr. Phuangphet Chunlaiad, chaired a meeting of the preparation committee for the ASEAN Community of the Education Ministry on 29 May 2013.

After the meeting, Dr. Phuangphet said that the Ministry of Education was preparing many activities for the AC, one of which is the Kick-Off towards AC at the end of June, 2013, at Challenger Hall, Muang Thong Thani in Nonthaburi. This event, presided over by the Prime Minister, Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra, aims to raise the awareness of Thai people and students of capacity building and strengthening the cooperation of all sectors for the ASEAN Community.

What the Ministry of Education is now emphasizing is English communication for Thai people. They are encouraged to speak English with confidence, even if only in short sentences, until they are used to the language. After Thailand becomes a member of the AC, there will a lot of mobility of services, business and professions among the nine member countries of ASEAN.

To prepare Thai people to speak English fluently, the Ministry of Education has created a manual of English conversation and provided training for ASEAN languages at 25 ASEAN studies centers throughout Thailand. For example, English and Burmese will be taught in northern Thailand, English, Chinese and Lao in eastern Thailand and Bahasa and English in southern Thailand.


In terms of the new ASEAN academic calendars, Thailand is responsible for serving as a center for managing educational standards. Thai schools have to have new academic calendars that match those of ASEAN countries, England and the US. Moreover, the Ministry will have to solve problems of educational standards for Thai students who study overseas because some of them have reported that their academic results had been downgraded by some foreign universities.