In reply to Dr. Smith, 'Enough of the silly rules' (Postbox 8thJuly) and not wanting to get into the age old argument of who has the most academic experience and being the more knowledgeable, I found the comments in his letter ‘The Thai Education System’ (Postbopx 27th June) the most profound I’ve probably ever read.

For me he summed up the problems of the Thai education system, as opposed to the often subjective fault finding and preferred options we all tend to have. We all have our gripes and complaints, but when even the Thai government acknowledge faults, it’s difficult to assume that it’s all because of the ‘Farang’ and not the system itself. The same teachers that work in Thailand also work elsewhere in Asia; strange then is it not, that it is Thailand that is at the bottom of the Asian education league table and not everywhere else?

I didn’t initially come to Thailand to be a slave labourer either; to be abused, overworked, cheated and blamed for all its ills. I’d rather be judged on the quality of the work I do than forever blamed for the systemic failures that I can’t change.

Enough of the smiling backstabbing, the pretending everyone has passed even though they’ve failed and the corruption from top to bottom that we all had to accept as part of the package. Get your act together Thailand, or stay at the bottom of Asian education, along with your 15K a month smiling twenty year old backpackers!

James