When governments make laws that involve education it is done in the best interests of the people. Most countries have laws that regulate the number of students in a classroom. Unless one is in university, modern countries have a class size of no more than 25 students in order that each student may recieve adequate attention and that teachers may get to know their students.

Thai schools which have class sizes of fifty students are operating a model of education run like a factory. Many of these so called good schools use the front or face of a private religious organization in order to justify charging high fees and are, in fact, not run like the Western model they are claiming to represent. One organization I know of allows student to fail on a regular basis and charges penalty fees to the parents. This results in many students who get high school certificates but are not prepared for university entrance exams and have to accept entrance into low prestige universities.

In classrooms of fifty students many are lazy and choose to copy others work. Factory model schools put pressure on teachers to let students hand in very late work or redo exams many times until they get a passing grade. If teachers do not do these things then they are fired or run off by parents who care about nothing other than what their kid wants. I have even seen one spoiled high school brat threaten a teacher with a pair of scissors because he could not pass his exams--nothing was done to the student.

Many kids learn how to do nothing original, copy others work and get what hard working students get yet many say this is a country of merit. Basically, the factory school model of so many Thai schools socializes students into learning how to do the wrong thing and expecting rewards for doing it. Then the kids grow up to be adults who do the same thing and people wonder why corruption is very prevalent in Thai society when it is learned right in the school system.

If there is anything that prevents or slows modernization it is corruption and the many have to suffer because of the few who choose to not live by honest principles--calling something a compromise instead of looking at it for what it truly is does not make a person a good member of society.

I find it very ironic that many of the religious schools in Thailand do not do the right thing and produce many students who are "learned useless" and without moral character. Parents must be very disappointed when they use their power and family name to get a son a good position in society when he is incapable of making a sound decision.

In the worst case scenario students get government scholarships to study overseas and within the first week realize that they are incapable of taking a note in class and have no clue what information in the lectures are important.
Ultimately, they come back to Thailand and feel betrayed by the Thai system that told them they were good enough when in fact they were not prepared for the overseas challenges.

What about those who graduate and stay in Thailand? Are they prepared for the challenges of their own country?

With the amount of problems that regularly occur in the country I would have to say that the future looks very predictable--the schools make lots of money and the students end up disappointed or like many products from Thai factories they look good but don't work well.

To get freedom from something you need freedom to something--this is the beginning of educational reform.

John Weathers