Analytical Study of Educational System: Problems and Development Approaches towards Desired Education

Abstract

This article is to study the Thai education system in terms of problems and desirable approaches to educational development. From the study, it is found that Thai educational philosophy is classified into 4 eras: 1) the Sukhothai period to the early Rattanakosin period, 2) the era of educational improvement during the reign of King Rama V, 3) the era before the change of the regime, and 4) the era after the change of the regime. These four eras are considered to be differences in Thai educational philosophy, especially in the 4^th era which is characterized by modern education according to progressivism, existentialism, and analytical philosophy. If compared with the wave of change, this 4^th era is considered to be the 5^th wave which is the study of the era of globalization or the 21^st century. Hence, it will be seen that from after the regime change onwards. The Thai government has established National Education Plans which are currently in 10^th version. These plans require the development of the education system in many areas, especially the establishment of the 2008 Basic Education Core Curriculum which specifies desirable education. There are 8 characteristics of students. The organization of education at every level has to take into account these characteristics. However, the organization of the Thai education system has problems that can be summarized into 3 areas: 1) the policy, 2) the operator, 3) the educational system. This is because of the rapid progress and changes in information technology make educational personnel, including students and parents being unable to use the advancement of information technology in education in a thorough and equitable manner. As a result, the overall problem is the problem of inequality in education. The approaches to solving these problems can be summarized into 2 approaches: 1) policy and 2) cooperation in solving problems. The knowledge discovered from this article is to obtain a problematic conceptual framework and a desirable approach to educational development based on the ideas of the 4^th era of Thai educational philosophy which is linked to the era of globalization.