4.1 Quantitative Analysis
4.1.1 Provision of Education on the Family and Child Rearing
Family is the smallest and most important social unit with high impact on social units. It is the first place where children are trained and are formed their behaviors. At present, directly and indirectly, the parents and guardians must learn about childhood development from various sources, for instance, radio or television programmes, newspapers columns and other printed materials. It is also found that data and indicators have shown a serious problem that about 400,000 of children at the age group of 0-5, or 6% are malnourished.

Government agencies and private sector have placed an importance to the family and child care. Hence, policies, plans, programmes and activities have been set up to provide continuing education on family and child care. Some of these are:

The National Economic and Social Development Plan :
Since the 5th National Economic and Social Development Plan (1982 -1986), the government has increasingly given high importance to the family and attempted to develop the mind, the family and child care. The development aimed to enable the family to perform its duty, capable of producing quality members imbued with good values and morality for society. As for spiritual, cultural and social development, the 7th Plan (1993-1996) stated the following goal: "to build up a secure family, capable of playing an important role in developing man and participating in the prevention and solution of social problems". In order to build up a secure family, "the study about family shall be included in the curriculum at all levels of formal and non-formal education". At primary education level, contents on experiences that can be applied by students on their everyday life have been included in subjects on life experiences, (students learn about the relationships of family members, their duties and responsibilities, changes of the body and the mind, etc.), character development ( activities in a happy family, role playing of family members), work and basic knowledge on work (for instance: housework, cooking, house care, clothing, help in child care, etc.).

Lower primary education aimed at enabling the learners to know about the development of the quality of life, awareness of their roles and duties, knowledge on family financial status, mental changes, hereditary, personality development, health, and prevention of diseases.

The 8th National Economic and Social Development Plan (1997-2001), has given high priority to the strengthening of the family and community including the opportunity development for human, family and community to enable them to efficiently participate in all aspects of the country's development. Some of the activities in this respect are the reform of teaching-learning process to develop learning process of the family and community members. Communities are encouraged to have more participation in the management of education at all levels, improvement of curriculum and teaching materials in consistency with the community lifestyle and environments. Furthermore, teacher development is also emphasized in order to enable them to transfer such knowledge and understandings to their students on a wider basis.

Health Development Plan :
The policy on the development of 0-6 years old children during the 7th Health Development Plan (1992-1996) focused on the development of the quality of mother and child lives during the 3 crucial periods, namely, pre-marital and pre-pregnancy, pregnancy and post-natal, infancy and early childhood. A child's development depends on his/her physical health while in the womb of his/her mother. The policy of the 7th Plan therefore covers the time of conception to its full integration, as follows:

1) Family Planning Policy. Each family should have 2 children at the maximum with at least three years of interval. The mother should be over twenty years old when she has the first child.
2) Maternal Health Policy. The policy encourages the promotion of proper care for pregnant women during pregnancy as well as safe delivery and postpartum care.
3) Child Health Policy. It aims to promote exclusive breast-feeding for at least 4 months and breast-feeding with supplementary feeding until age 1.

The ultimate goal of the plan is that every Thai child will survive with good health, in terms of physical, mental, emotional, and intellectual.

The health promotion plan as contained in the health development plan during the 8th National Economic and Social Development Plan ( 1997-2001) has established a scheme to promote age-specific health: mother and child health promotion, promotion of health in school-age children and youth, working age and the old-age groups.

The promotion of mother and child health has the following objectives
a. to reduce morbidity and mortality rates of the mothers
b. to reduce morbidity, disability and mortality rates among children aged 0-5
c. to reduce prevalence of hereditary abnormality diseases.
d. to provide standardized health beviours among parents
e. to provide appropriate health service to the mother and child
f. to provide proper child care so that the child will be healthy and meet with developmental stages in terms of physical, intellectual, mental, and emotional aspects.
g. to encourage family and community participation in child care.

The promotion of health in school-age children and youth aims at providing health development through the promotion and prevention of health development to enable the children in this group to be healthy and meet with developmental stages in terms of physical, mental, and intellectual aspects.

Health-Promoting Schools Project :
At the Inter-country Consultation of Health-Promoting Schools held in December 1997 in Thailand, recommendations and guidelines for implementation of health-promoting schools were proposed and agreed upon, including the setting up of national and regional network.

In Thailand, the Department of Health, Ministry of Public Health, has formulated the strategies for public health development. As for the implementation, the Ministry of Public Health has coordinated with concerned agencies, for instance, the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Interior by setting up a Committee on Schools for Health Promotion. The Committee has set up the goal that all schools will be included in the project with six main features as follow:

1) Encourage and promote health and education personnel, teachers, students, parents, community leaders to actively participate in health promotion together with families and school-related groups and organizations in the community.
2) Attempt to provide healthy and security environments.
3) Arrange courses in health education with an emphasis on the improvement of knowledge and understanding on health and healthy habits.
4) Provide access to health service through the provision of services on physical check-up, diagnosis, surveillance on developmental stages, immunization, depending on resources and regulations of the school.
5) Carry out the programme action according to the policy and practice in health promotion.
6) Attempt to improve health in the community.

A summary of the evaluation of mother and child health in 1994 (Evaluation and Analysis Unit, Family Health Division, Department of Health, Ministry of Public Health) shows a summary of the evaluation as follows:

ุ Pre-natal Care for Mothers. It was found that 532,922 mothers attended all of the pre-natal care services (4 times) offered by health officials. This number represented 67.01 % of the total number of the mothers, which was lower than the target (75%).

ุ Child Delivery by Health Personnel and Trained Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA). 702,230 children or 88.31% of the total delivery were undertaken by both public and private health personnel and traditional birth attendants. This is higher than the target (80%).

ุ Post-delivery Care for Mother and Child (3 visits). 476,680 mothers fully received this service, accounting for 59.94% of the total birth. This is lower than the target (70%).

ุ Weight of New-born Babies (lower than 2,500 grams.). A number of 55,618 babies or 8.34% of all births were born with weight under 2,500 grams. The 7th National Economic and Social Plan stipulated that the rate must not be higher than 7%. Therefore, the target was not been achieved.

ุ Model Mothers. It was found that, of the 2,169,575 mothers aged 21-35, a number of 415,305 mothers were qualified as model mothers, which was 19.14%.

ุ Motality Rate of Mother, Baby, Child under five years old. Mother mortality rate was 0.16 per 1,000 survival new-born; infant mortality rate was 6.19 per 1,000 per survival new-born. However, registration of infant death was still inaccurate, making the reported rate lower than the actual rate. It can be assumed that the present infant mortality rate is about 28.5 per 1,000 per survival new-born. Mortality rate of children under five years old is 41.27 per 1,000 per survival children.

The report by the Department of Community Development, Ministry of Interior, on the Thai people's quality of life, from the data on basic necessities collected since 1994, shows some related information as follows:

ุ Pre-natal care for mothers/pregnant women. The public was paying more attention to this issue. During the years 1994-1998, the percentage of pregnant women receiving care was 97.4, 97.2, 98.0, 98.3 and 98.8 % respectively.

ุ Surveillance and Provision of Proper Nutrition to Children 0-5. In 1997, the achievement was about 16.1 % higher than the target (80%).

ุ Immunization for Infant under One Year Old. It aimed to provide all required periodical immunization to this group of children. In 1994, the services were covered 4.3% higher than the target (95%).

ุ Child Care (0-5 years old). The 1997 survey showed that, of the 6.4 million of 0-5 year-old children (10.6% of the total population), the majority (78.6%) were brought up by parents; 16.2% by grandparents from the same or different household; 1.6% by relatives in the same household and 1.4% in child care centres or nurseries.

4.1.2 Early Childhood Care and Development (Indicator 1)
Development of human requires active cooperation from all parties and has to be undertaken on a lifelong basis. From this perspective, child development should be emphasized since the conception to pre-school years (1-5 years old). A 0-2 year-old-child should be closely looked after by the family. A 3-5 year-old-child starts to enter pre-primary education level, the first level of education in which a firm foundation must be laid down for him/her to allow for the growth and development in various aspects: physical, mental, emotional, personality and social. He/she should then be prepared to enroll into a primary school and learn to grow up as a good citizen of the country.

This level of education aims to provide care services and readiness for children in various aspects, namely, physical, mental, intellectual, emotional, personal and social. It is divided into a 2-year or 3-year nursery and 1-year pre-primary. Child development centres are also established as non-formal schooling system which come in various types.

Formal education at this level had been expanded during 1990-1998. In 1998, 2,152,192 young children enrolled in this level of education, representing 68.64% of the 3-5 year-old age children, more than double of that in 1990. In 1990, only 1,158,521 or 35.33% of 3-5 year-old children enrolled in pre-primary education. The ratio of public: private schools was 70:30 to 75:24. There is no remarkable difference in terms of the gender. (Details are in the table)

Table showing pre-primary pupils in formal schooling expressed as a percentage of population aged 3-5 and the proportion of pupils in public schools to those in private schools, by academic year:

There is an increase of the number of children enrolling in this level of education when all types of schools and centres, both formal and non-formal, are included. (Details are in the table)

Table showing pupils in formal and non-formal schooling expressed as a percentage of population aged 3-5 by academic year:

GO TO MAP 1 (ECCD gross enrolment)

4.1.3 Primary education
Primary education is compulsory as prescribed in the 1980 Primary Education Act. Parents or guardian of children entering their eighth year of age must enroll their children into a school until they are fifteen years of age, or they have passed primary grade 6 examination according to the curriculum prescribed in Section 5.

In enrolling a child to a school as in paragraph 1, the child shall not be absent from class for more than seven days of a month's attendance. The provincial primary education committee may allow the parents in any particular area to enroll their children in a primary school at the age lower or higher than that prescribed in paragraph 1 where appropriate. The age is counted according to the calendar year.

The 1977 National Education Scheme stipulated that the age of a child for the commencement of primary education depends on each community according to local conditions and readiness of children in such community. However, children shall not be forced to enroll into school before the age of six and not later than the full age of eight. The 5th National Economic and Social Development Plan stressed the quantitative aspect of education, that primary education provided must cover school-age population. Since the 6th Plan, there has been a clear-cut line in the policy, measures and goals of education. The goal is to provide compulsory education (primary grade 1 - primary grade 6) to cover every child of compulsory education age.

The Office of Primary Education Commission is the core agency, with the cooperation of other agencies in and outside the Ministry of Education, to provide the service of this level of education to the population in the target groups.
The outcome of the management of primary education will be presented in 5 parts:
1) Gross intake rate.
2) Net intake rate.
3) The ratio of primary grade 1 pupils attended early childhood care service.
4) Primary education ratio.
5) Efficiency of the management of primary education. (Remarks: Indicators 2,3 and 4 students in grade 1 are used instead of new entrants )

1) Gross Intake Rate : Indicator 3
The number of primary grade 1 pupils from 1990 to 1997 remains rather constant, that is, about 1.1 million. In 1990, there were 1,153,149 primary grade 1 pupils or about 101.57% of the population aged 6. In 1992 and 1994, there was a slight decrease in the number: 1,109,019 primary grade 1 pupils in 1992, representing 99.88% and 1,050,811 in 1994 representing 96.41%. However, there was a slight increase in 1996 and 1998: 1,102,425 students (102.68%) in 1996 and 1,109,812 students (103.79%) in 1998.

The ratio of public and private primary schools is approximately 85:15 to 87:13. Regarding gender issue, boys have a slightly greater opportunity to enroll in school than girls with equal opportunity in the range of 0.96 to 0.99% (see Annex A. Table 3).

Table showing percentage of primary grade 1 pupils compared to the children aged 6, classified by school year:

GO TO MAP 3 (Apparent (gross) Intake rate)

2) Net Intake Rate in Primary Grade 1 Class: Indicator 4
If we compare primary grade 1 pupils to exactly 6 years of age to population aged 6 years to study the net intake rate, it is found that in 1992,the net intake rate of Primary 1 is 23.86% increasing to 37.14% in 1998.

Table showing net enrolment ratio in primary grade 1, classified by academic year:

* with the exception of Bangkok.

GO TO MAP 4 (Net Intake rate)

3) The Ratio of Primary Grade 1 Pupils Attended Early Childhood Care Service : Indicator 2
The estimation of the new entrants in primary grade 1 who have attended early childhood care services increased. In 1990, there was 70.71% but rose to 94% in 1998. (see Annex A. Table 2)

Table showing percentage of primary grade 1 pupils attended early childhood care services, classified by academic year:

GO TO MAP 2 (Grade 1 pupils who attended ECCD programme)

4) Primary Education Ratio Gross Enrolment Ratio: Indicator 5
The gross enrolment ratio in primary schools (percentage of primary grades 1-6 students per population aged 6-11) during 1990-1998 showed a fluctuation between 89.16% to 94.18%. The gross enrollment rate for primary education in 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996 and 1998 was: 93.49%, 90.75%, 94.18%, 89.16%, and 91.32% respectively. The proportion between education provided by the public sector and that provided by the private sector was somewhere between 87:13 and 90:10. The gap in gender equality in obtaining education was 0.97 to 0.98 percent. (see Annex A. Table 4)

Table showing total enrolment in primary education as a percentage of population aged 6-11 , classified by academic year:

GO TO MAP 5 (Primary school gross enrolment ratio)

Net Enrolment Ratio : Indicator 6
The comparison between primary school students aged 6-11 and population aged 6-11 for the study of net enrolment ratio showed that net enrollment ratio (percentage of students aged 6-11 per population aged 6-11) increased, ranging from 70.15% in 1992 to 80.40% in 1998.

Table showing net enrolment ratio in primary education:

GO TO MAP 6 (Primary school net enrolment ratio)

5) Efficiency of the Primary Education Management
Four factors representing indicators on efficiency in the provision of education will be discussed here. They are: repetition, drop-out, retention and years spent for education. Specific data provided by the Office of the National Primary Education Commission is used as the major source of computation.
Condition: The study and presentation of data on the efficiency of primary education management is based on educational institutions under the jurisdiction of the Office of the National Primary Education Commission.

Repetition Rate: Indicator 12 The rate of repetition of primary education (primary grade 1 -6) from 1990 to 1997 was 2.73 - 3.73%, the highest being in 1991 with 3.73% and the lowest in 1993 with 2.73%.

When looking closely at each class, the rate of the repetition of primary grade 1 was higher than those of other grades. The rate of repetition of grade 6 was the lowest. (see Annex A. Table 7)

Table showing repetition rate of primary school students , classified by grade :

GO TO MAP 7 (Repetition Rate (1996)

Survival rate to grade 6 and average years spent for the completion of primary cycle : Indicator 13, 14
Another major problem faced by many institutions of learning is the rate of drop-outs before the students finish their education. This causes a great deal of education waste every year. If we estimate that annual expenses paid per one student for tuition fee, school equipment, stationery, books, uniforms, transportation, lunch and other expenses in connection with his study is about 6,541 baht (expenses computed in 1997 from children aged 3-24 years old still studying but excluding 3-24 years old children still studying but with no educational expenses). The data from the Office of National Primary Education Commission in 1998 showed that the number of drop-outs during that year was 31,294 representing a financial waste of more than 200 million baht. Any student who had to study in the same class for an additional year also added up to an increase in expenses. What should be immediately taken action is to reduce the drop-outs and to increase the retention of students up to 100% so as to enable the repetition to be zero and encourage them to stay in school until grade 6.

From 1990 to 1998, it was found that the percentage of students who remained until the end of grade 6 was 84.7%, 87.9%, 75.8%, and 93.5% in 1990/1991, 1992/1993, 1994/1995 and 1996/1997 respectively. The total average number of years spent till the end of grade 6 was 7.1, 6.8, 7.9 and 6.4 respectively.

GO TO MAP 8 (Survival rate to grade 6)

Table showing the percentage of students who survive until the end of primary grade 6 and the average number of years :

Teachers and Pupil - Teacher Ratio : Indicator 11
Another factor contributing to the efficiency and the achievement of the management of education is the quality of the teachers. Although at present, Thailand has not yet demanded that teachers possess a license to teach, but in recruiting teachers especially in public schools, the rules set out by the Office of the Teacher Civil Service Commission must be complied with. Teacher civil servants must possess at least a Bachelor's degree. Since 1990, the Teacher Civil Service Commission has stipulated that those applying for a competitive examination as teacher civil servants under the Office of the National Primary Education Commission in the first competitive examination 1990 must obtain a Bachelor's degree or equivalent and must have taken up not less than 15 credits of teaching subjects in a bilateral system. Teaching subjects prescribed belong to the following 6 groups: 1) Principle and methodology of teaching and preparation of practical experiences ; 2) Educational psychology; 3) Educational technology and innovation; 4) Evaluation and formulation of tests; 5) Teaching methodology in general and specific examination methodology; and 6) Curriculum, basic education and ethics for teachers.

a) Academic Qualification of Teaching Staff
Teachers can be divided according to the academic qualifications into two groups. Group 1 are those with at least a Bachelor's Degree and Group 2 are those with qualification lower than Bachelor's Degree. During 1990-1998, the number of teachers with a Bachelor's Degree increased from 175,811 or 62.32% of the total number of teachers in 1990 to 265,563 or 83.86% in 1998. While those with less than Bachelor's Degree decreased , from 107,032 or 37.94 % in 1990 to 51,627 or 16.30% in 1998.

GO TO MAP 9 (Primary School Teachers Who are Certified by National Standards)

Table showing the number of teacher civil servants, classified by academic qualifications and academic year:

b) The Pupil - Teacher Ratio
The ratio of pupils per 1 teacher is 21-22:1. In Bangkok, the ratio of pupil-teacher tends to be higher than that in other provinces.

Table showing pupil-teacher ratio, classified by academic year:

GO TO MAP 10 (Pupil-teacher ratio)

4.1.4 Secondary Education
The National Education Plan 1992 stipulates that secondary education is basic education for all. The government should expand basic education for all to enable people to improve a quality of life. Secondary education is divided into lower and upper secondary levels.

Lower secondary education :
Progress in science and technology has played an important part in rapid economic and social development of the country with an impact on lifestyle and people's values. International culture pours into the country in various forms. It is therefore necessary to take an action to upgrade the knowledge, idea, values and basic education of the people. A duration of six years of basic education may not be enough to meet these demands. The government's policy is to encourage more of its people to continue their studies in lower secondary level. This is the level which aims at providing literacy to the people. The National Education Act 1999 has extended compulsory education from 6 years to 9 years which means that compulsory education will include lower secondary level. This will become fully effective in 2002. The situation of lower secondary education is as follows:

Enrolment ratio at lower secondary level
Gross enrollment ratio or the percentage of the total number of students in lower secondary classes compared to the population aged 12-14 since 1990 has constantly increased from 1.39 million in 1990 to 2.43 in 1998, or from 39.66% in 1990 to 72.65% in 1998.

Table showing gross enrolment ratio at lower secondary level, and the ratio of students in public schools to private schools, classified by academic year:

Source : Bureau of Policy and Planning. Office of the Permanent Secretary (Educational Statistics in Brief)

The proportion of public and private school students at lower secondary level since 1990 has shown a remarkable decrease of the number of this category of students in private schools, from 11 % in 1990 to 6% in 1998. This may be because the government has proclaimed to extend compulsory education from 6 years to 9 years and basic education to 12 years. At the initial stage, provision will be made in the form of opportunity education expansion to the underprivileged to enable them to study in secondary level by arranging supporting programmes such as free tuition fee, food, uniform, and textbooks. This has convincing more students to attend public schools.

The net enrolment ratio representing the ratio between lower secondary students aged 12-14 and population aged 12-14 shows that during 1992, 1994 and 1996, the net enrolment ratio at the lower secondary level or the percentage of students at lower secondary level when compared to population aged 12-14 is 46.71, 35.39, and 48.15 respectively.

Table showing net enrolment ratio at lower secondary level, by academic year:

Source : Report on education and teachers. National Statistics Office. OPEC : Office of the Private Education Commission.

Rate of transition to lower education
The constantly increasing gross enrollment rate into lower secondary level had risen to an occurrence: the acceleration for more enrollment into the first years of lower secondary or Mathayom 1, pushing the percentage from 53 in 1990 to 91 in 1998.

Table showing the transition rate from primary 6 to the 1st year of lower secondary level (Matthayom 1), classified by academic year:

Source : Data on continuing education in educational institutions under Ministry of Education.

Upper secondary education :
The upper secondary education focuses on the promotion of opportunity for the students to take up subjects in which they are interested in and provide basic skills to study in higher level or to work. It also promotes the development of ethics, morality and social skills required for their work and coexistence in the society. It is divided into 2 streamlines, namely, general and vocational. This is the education as prescribed in the paragraph 2, Section 16 of the 1999 National Education Act, which states that basic education is to be provided at the minimum of 12 years prior to higher education…. Therefore, this is the level of education needing full campaign and mobilization of all parties to allow a wide and thorough coverage to all citizens.

Gross enrolment ratio at upper secondary education
The gross enrolment ratio both in the general and vocational streamlines or the percentage of the total number of students in upper secondary level when compared to population in the age group 12-14 is found to be constantly increasing. The proportion between public and private school students at the upper secondary level in a class during 1990-1998 ranges from 73:27 to 83:17.

Table showing gross enrolment ratio at upper secondary level, by academic year:

Besides the provision of lower and upper education in schools, there are other categories provided such as education for monks and novices in Dharma-Pali schools, general education section. This is another option to increase education opportunity.

Table showing the number of students (monks, novices) in Dharma-Pali schools, general education, classified by academicyear:

4.1.5 Education for the Disadvantaged
Although it seems that the provision of basic education especially in compulsory education has met with a certain level of achievement in quantitative aspect. There is a certain number of people lacking or missing an opportunity to receive any education. In 1998, 91.32% of the total population in school age group 6-11 years received education. The remaining 8.68% or approximately 600,000 missed an opportunity to receive compulsory education. These children are disadvantaged in various respects, such as the disabled, those living in remote rural area, street children, children in slums, those without nationality and with different culture.

Several agencies are attempting to assist the economically and socially disadvantaged. Some of such agencies are; Department of General Education, Office of the National Primary Education Commission, Department of Non-formal Education, Office of the Private Education Commission, Department of Public Welfare, National Police Office (Border Patrol Police Command) and many non-government organizations such as Foundation for Children, Suan Kaew Monastery Foundation, Rajprachasamasai Foundation.

According to the Department of General Education (Special Education Division), Private Education Commission (Special Education, Welfare Education), National Police Office (Border Patrol Police), Public Welfare Department (Children and Youth Welfare Division, Hill-tribe Welfare Division), children assisted to enrol in pre-primary level to lower secondary education level from the years 1990 to 1996 had constantly increased from 33,199 in 1990 to 59,908 in 1998, representing 80% increase.

The number of children belonging to these groups studying at the pre-primary level in 1990 increased from 2179 in 1990 to 9,002 in 1996 or an increase of 313 percent; that in the primary education level from 37,839 in 1990 to 39,676 in 1996 or 5 percent; and the number in lower secondary education level from 3,181 in 1990 to 11,230 in 1996 or an increase of 253 percent.

Table showing the disadvantaged receiving education:

Data available obtained from :
ท the Department of General Education
ท the Office of the Private Education Commission (Special Education, Welfare Education)
ท the Office of the National Primary Education Commission (In 1998, 342,701 disadvantaged children or 85.45% accessed to education)
ท the National Police Office (Border Patrol Police Command)
ท the Public Welfare Department (Children and Youth Welfare Division, Hill-tribe Welfare Division)

The above information showed that every year there has been an increase in quantity of service provided to the disadvantaged by government agencies. Children, such as street children who loiter around bus terminals, under bridges or fly-overs, or building sites, are still miss an opportunity to enter schooling system. NGOs scattering around the countries are trying hard to provide them with such opportunity whenever and wherever the situation and the condition permits. Their provision of education comes in 3 categories: 1) Optional education in which the children are allowed to choose subjects they have aptitude in; adjustment of behavior will come later in a natural way, such as in projects like that of Children's Village School, Factory School, Children's Forest Conservation Project. 2) Proactive education in which teachers will reach out for children loitering in various places such as public parks, underneath the elevated road bridges, bus terminals. These "street teachers" will approach the children, make friends with them and gain their confidence , then offer them with various options: to be in a home provided by the government of NGO, get some job, go to school or return home. Such projects include Early Childhood and Youth Development Centre in slum areas, Mobile Teachers for Children. 3) Informal education in which NGOs and NFE Department join in providing education to children of building labour, children in congested areas aged 14-25. However, duplication still exists regarding the target groups to which the operation by NGO's is directed due to lack of the centre of database and focal point.

Despite the cooperation of the public and private sectors, some children still remain outside these services. It is therefore deemed necessary to strengthen non-formal education, especially at the basic education level, to provide greater opportunities and upgrade the standard of education of the people in general.

Non-Formal Education :
The Non-formal Education Department, the Ministry of Education, serves as the core service agency in providing non-formal education. People outside the formal schooling system will learn to read and write until they finish the courses as equivalent to primary, lower and upper secondary education so that they can improve a quality of life or for further education. There are three approaches of studying, namely, in class, long-distance learning and self-study:

In class
ท attend 4 hours- a- day classes during weekdays
ท attend group activities to improve a quality of life
ท measure the outcome of learning during and at end of the semester

Distance learning
ท study from media, document, radio and television programmes
ท meet the group for not less than 3 hours a week
ท attend group activities to improve a quality of life
ท measure the outcome of learning during and at end of the semester

Self-study
ท search for knowledge from media and document
ท attend group activities to improve a quality of life
ท measure the outcome of the learning at end of the semester

The outcome of the provision of education, general stream, is shown in the following table.

Table showing the number of students in general education under NFE Department, classified according to level of education, methodology and fiscal year:

4.1.6 Promotion of Literacy
The promotion of literacy has been placed as high priority as part of basic education. The government has therefore set up a policy for an extensive coverage of basic education in a diverse forms and methodologies to meet the demands of specific target groups, in order to promote and maintain literacy rate.

Literacy Status :
The 1990 census of the National Statistical Office demonstrated that the population aged over 6 years who were literate were 45,539,111 or 92.72% with a slightly higher percentage among males than females. Literacy rate among men was 94.47% and among women 91.02%.

Among the population aged 15-24, 98.12% was literate, 98.43% among men and 97.81% among women.

The 1994 survey of the National Statistical Office on literacy rate showed that 46,932,300 persons over 6 years of age were literate, representing 91.50%, with 93.67% were men and 89.38% were women. 93.28% of the population over 15 years old were literate, 96.07% were men and 90.57% were women at.

The literacy rate among the population aged 15-24 was 98.57% and 98.67% were men while 98.47% were women.

Table showing literacy rate 1990, 1994

The data of the Community Development Department, Ministry of Interior showed that in 1998 97.7% of the population aged 14-50 (excluding those in Bangkok) were able to read and write Thai. However, this figure was lower than the goal set for the standard of the quality of life (goal:99 percent). The regions with higher percentage than the goal were: central and northeast. In the northern and southern regions, the rate was still lower than the goal.

Table showing literacy rate among 14-50 year-old household members who were literate in Thai, 1998

Functional Literacy Rate :
Functional literacy includes the promotion of literacy that annexes skills training and knowledge about income generation. This is based on the belief that literacy is not isolated from life and income generation as well as from the economic, social, political and environmental aspects of life which enable people to live happily in the society, using skill in literacy as tools. One major objective of the 8th National Economic and Social Development Plan stipulates that the development of people's potential in logical thinking and functional literacy means the ability to read and write and compute which can be applied to solve problems in present situations. People capable of attaining this level of ability must have received at least 5-6 years of schooling.

Functional literacy therefore refers to the percentage of the population who have completed at least 6 years of schooling, either in formal or non-formal.

From the 1992 survey of data on children and youth with data collected from the population aged over 6 about the highest level of education they have received, only 51.9 percent of the population at the age of 12-50 years were functional literate. However, the rate rose to 57.3 percent among people in this target group in 1997.

Moreover, the Department of Non-formal Education organized specific courses for specific purposes such as in-service military personnel, detainees and workers in industries and factories. Emphasis is placed on those who have not finished their compulsory education and those who do not know how to read and write with the aim to enable them to read and write and know how to solve problems by themselves. Educational facilities such as classrooms and teaching volunteers on low-land are provided. Graduates from this category of education will receive equivalent qualification to that of primary grade 4.

Table showing the number of non-formal education students at the basic functional literacy programme, DNFE.

N.B. The provision of non-formal education in the general streamline and the expansion of opportunity in non-formal education to 2 semesters a year with new students enrolled each semester increased to the fact that, in each new semester, there will be both incumbent students and new entrants.

4.2 Quality of Education
The Thai government has also given high priority to the provision of basic education for all both in quality and quantity. This report will attempt to discuss the provision of education for the improvement of the people's quality of life, starting from childhood to adulthood, in the following areas: 1) Development of the student's physical health; 2) Development of learning ability; 3) Development of the student's ethics and morality; 4) Training in essential skill; 5) Education for better living.

4.2.1 Development of the Student's Physical Health
The plan of action for basic education for all has set up the goal that by 2001 the students' developmental stages will be fully covered. This specific goal aims to encourage students, especially those in the disadvantaged group to be provided with nutritionally appropriate food. Various measures have been set, for instance, public and private sectors as well as communities are encouraged to support meals and supplementary food to all impoverished students. Students are also encouraged to participate in sports as well as health promotion activities. The achievements are as follows;

Students' Nutrition and Growth :
In the survey on malnutrition in children aged 0-5 by the Department of Health, the Ministry of Public Health during 1993 - 1995, it was found that about 13 percent of the total number of children suffered from malnutrition Level 1 ( generally regarded as not exactly called malnutrition). In 1993, the percentage of children suffering from malnutrition Level 1 was 14.4% and declined to 11.72% in 1995. Details are shown in the chart.

Chart showing Percentage of children aged 0-5 suffering from mulnutrition level 1-3 in 1993-1995

Source : Summarized from Surveillance report on growth in students aged 5-14, 1993-1995

The survey on students' weight and height conducted by the Department of Health in 1991 and 1994 showed that most students have proper weight. However, some students in the Northeast and South still have lower-than-standard weight. In 1991, there was 19 percent of the total number of students from the southern and central regions. In 1994, after the launching of School Lunch Programme, the percentage of underweight students went down to 15% of the total. These students are residents in the Northeast and South. See details in chart.

Chart showing percentage of students with weight lower than standard weight. 1991,1994

The chart showed the decrease of malnutrition. It was assumed that the decrease of the malnutrition was partly effected by the School Lunch Programme.

Nutrition Services :
1) School Lunch Programme Since 1992, Thailand has set up the budget for the School Lunch Programme as revolving fund to support lunch for the students in pre-primary and primary schools. The total budget allocated to the programme was 6,000 million baht. Every year, the government will allocate 500 million baht as an endowment fund. The target consists the 0.7 million pre-primary children and 1.7 million primary students were under the jurisdiction of the Office of Private Education Commission, Bangkok Municipality Administration, Border Patrol Police Command, Office of Local Education and Department of Religious Affairs.

The outcome of the implementation of the fiscal year 1994 showed that the government was able to provide assistance to 377,358 pre-primary children (budget 322.8 million baht) and 452,830 primary students (budget 1,000 million baht), or 25.4 percent of the total number of students without lunch. In fiscal year 1998, assistance was given to 687,942 pre-primary students and 1,833,328 primary students or about 30 percent of the deprived students. Details of the budget provided by the government is shown in the table. The survey by the Department of Health, Ministry of Public Health shows that malnutrition among students which was 14.5% (male:14, female:15) in 1992 reduced to 11.84% in 1998.

Table showing financial support for school lunch programme

Unit : 1,000 baht

Source : Bureau of Policy and Planning. Ministry of Education.

2) Supplementary food (milk) The government has allocated budget for providing supplementary food (milk) to pre-primary students since 1992.At the initial stage, the service was provided to the schools under the jurisdiction of the Office of the National Primary Education Commission. The service was expanded to cover students under other agencies, namely, Local Educational Administration Office, BMA, Department of Religious Affairs, and Community Development Department(CDD). The expense allocated in 1992-1993 was 400 baht for a student per year and in 1994-1996 increased to 800 baht for a student per year. Those under CDD have been allocated an average of 1,000 baht for a student per year.

Budget was allocated for supplementary food (milk) to primary school students since 1995. The first target group was the primary grade 1 students under the Office of Primary Education Commission, Office of Local Education Administration Commission and BMA. Later, in 1996-1998, the coverage had been extended to cover students in Primary Grade 2,3 and 4 respectively. Details are shown in the chart.

Chart showing the budget for supplementary food (milk), 1992-1996

The outcome of the implementation on the provision of supplementary food (milk) to pre-primary and primary school students shows that the majority of students under this project are under the Office of National Primary Education Commission. In 1992, a total number of 696,625 students benefited from the project, and increased to 4,845,330 students in 1999.

The project also bears some effect upon the physical growth of the students. The study of the Department of Health, Ministry of Public Health, indicated that both weight and height of the students under the programme increased. Details are shown in the table.

Table comparison of mean of weight and height before and after having supplementary food (milk), classified by gender:

Source : Bureau of Policy and Planning. Ministry of Education.

3) Provision of Health Services The government has provided the following health services to students:

ุ Provision of health services to students since 1990. The Department of Health, Ministry of Public Health has provided free treatment services to students when they are sick since 1990. Physical check-up and immunization are also provided. The budget allocated to this service have increased from 125 million baht in 1992 to 182.242 million baht in 1996 or in 45.79%. This represents an average increase of 14.31 million baht a year and an average cost of 30 baht per person in a year. Details are shown in the chart.

Chart showing budget for health service to students. 1992-1996

Source: Report on the State of the Management of Basic Education For All 1997. P. 22

ุ Surveillance and monitoring on the nutrition among students aged 5-14 through the measurement of weight and height. The coverage in 1995 was 57.3%, and rose to 61.6% in 1993. The problem of underweight was solved through the provision of full course of vitamin and supplementary food

The surveillance and monitoring on nutrition condition among children aged 0-5, by comparing the weight to age, was found that in 1992-1993, the coverage met 91.5% and 91.3% of the target respectively. The percentage of coverage of surveillance and follow-up on iron deficiency anemia in students was 87 in 1992, and 92.5 in 1993.

Other services are also provided such as eye care service and check-up, ear care service and dental health promotion and protection.
Furthermore, health personnel and teachers are trained to provide guidance and counselling on health issuers to teenagers. The training was given so as to enable health officials and teachers to understand the problem of health among teenagers. Advice is also provided on prevention of drugs and AIDS.

ุ Campaign for the Drugs and AIDS Prevention. The Ministry of Education is fully aware of the severity and long-term impact of drug problem and has set up an immediate policy for every agency and educational institution to provide full efforts to solve this problem. In 1992, a five-year plan was formulated in accord with the National Drug Prevention Plan. The implementation at the initial stage focused on the integration of the content in some subjects. Later, the focus was shifted to the development related activities and projects. Successful programmes were Peer-warn-Peer and White Schools Project aimed at mobilizing all concerned to assist in drugs prevention in schools. The following table shows the budget allocated to the prevention and solution of drugs and AIDS.

Table showing budget allotted to Ministry of Education

Unit : 1,000 baht

Source: Office of Special Affairs, Office of the Permanent Secretary for Education

As for the prevention and solution of AIDS problems, the Ministry of Education focuses on providing knowledge and understanding to primary and secondary school students. The outcome indicated that students were aware of the danger of AIDS. They percieved the idea of prevention and are knowledgeable and skillful in the prevention of AIDS. Even primary school students have learned how to protect themselves against risk situations. Besides knowledge dissemination, the Ministry of Education and other concerned agencies such as the Department of Public Welfare, Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare assisted children whose parents were HIV positive or those effected by AIDS to enroll in Rajaprachanukroh School.( There are 32 Rajaprachanukroh Schools throughout the country in 1999 from nursery to upper secondary level.)

Service in sports and physical exercises :
The agencies concerned to the promotion of sports and physical exercises are the Department of Physical Education and the Sports Authority of Thailand:

ุ Department of Physical Education is attached to the Ministry of Education and responsible for the provision of physical education. It encourages students to be involved in sports activities and exercise, for instance, organizing students sports competitions at the local and national levels, promoting sports in the community and remote rural areas.

ุ The Sports Authority of Thailand provides knowledge about sports and physical exercises, produces videotapes and programmes on sports and sports for good health, publishes handbooks on sports rules and regulations, trains personnel who will serve as sports trainers and leaders in physical exercises, constructs sports arena and playgrounds, etc.

4.2.2 Development of theStudents' Learning Ability
Learning ability :
Students' learning ability can be measured by physical, mental, intelligence, emotional and social development at various educational levels and can be summed up as follows:

1) Pre-Primary education The evaluation of the 6th National Education Development Plan (1987 -1991) on early childhood care and development in the form of kindergarten and child care centres, using as criteria 80% and over of compliance with the rules of psychological development, showed that 56.8% of the children passed the physical development criteria, 21.6% passed emotional, mental and social criteria, while only 4.0% passed the intelligence development criteria.

With 60% psychological development compliance, 93.2% passed the physical development , 55.7% passed emotional, mental and social development and 30.1% passed the intelligence criteria.

Monitoring children who had attended early childhood care service from monasteries under the Department of Religious Affairs with 80% compliance with psychological development, 28.3% of the children passed the physical development criteria. No children passed the emotional, mental, social and intelligence criteria. With 60% compliance with psychological development, 57.2, 28.3, 21.4, 31.2 and 0.6 percent passed the development criteria in the following aspects: physical, emotional, mental, social and intelligence, respectively.

2) Primary Education Level The Department of Curriculum and Instruction Development (DCID) conducted an evaluation on primary education curriculum to evaluate the quality of the students and education management of the school.The evaluation was randomly conducted among primary grade 6 students in schools all over the country, taking into account about 10-15% of the total number students in schools classified by agencies, education regions and provinces. The survey covers schools of all sizes. Evaluation of the achievement is undertaken in the following: 1) basic knowledge and ability 2) ability to think and solve problems and 3) general character, character for occupational development and character for social development. The test is done every other year, starting in academic year 1990. The minimum standard set by DCID is that the average scores of individual subject must be over 50 %.

The outcome of the evaluation in years 1990,1992,1994,1996 showed that the average scores of the majority were over 50% in nearly all subjects (Thai, mathematics, science, thinking and problem solving, work and basic skill for occupation, and social study) (see Annex A. Table 8)

The whole national scores of the students in the whole nation was brought to be compared to the standard of UNESCO ( which states that more that 80% of the students must pass each subject). It was found that in 1990, most students passed in almost all subjects, except in work and basic skills for occupation in which only 70.60% of the students passed. In 1992,1994 and 1996, about 81 to 98% of the students passed in each subject. This is considered the criteria has been met.

3) Lower secondary education level The DCID has conducted an evaluation on the curriculum at the lower secondary level to measure the quality of educational management. Standard test was set up and used among sample groups comprising grade 9 (Matthayom 3) students nationwide, in order to assess the achievement in terms of knowledge, idea and character. The outcome is summarized as follows:

Regarding the learning achievement of Matthayom 3 students in 1990,1993 and 1995, most students gained an average scores of higher than 50% in tested subjects. Subjects with average scores higher than others are Thai language and social studies. (see Annex A. Table 8) Mathematics was the subject with average scores lower than others, with 39.98, 43.12 and 33.65 in 1990, 1993 and 1995 respectively. This is partly due to the problems in instructional process and the lack of teachers in subjects related to computation as stated in the previous chapter.

Development of Teaching-learning Methods :
Agencies concerned in Thailand has attempted to find various ways and measures to develop teaching-learning methods to provide the learners with knowledge, ability and new skills. The guidelines for teaching-learning development may be summed up as follows:

1) Curriculum Development The 1978 Primary and Secondary Education Curriculum was improved and updated in 1990. The content was developed to be in accord with national and international social, economic and political, as well as technological changes. This applies particularly to secondary education level. The students are free to choose their subjects according to their aptitude, personal interest, and suitability with the local condition. Local wisdom was also encouraged.

2) Teacher Training and the the Scarcity of Teachers At present, attempts have been made to develop teaching efficiency of the teachers. Traditionally, teachers concentrated on transferring the substance of knowledge to the students with teacher-oriented approach. This obstructed inter-relationship between teachers and students. Teaching-learning process is therefore being shifted to learner-centred approach. Students will learn how to think, act and solve problems. Concerned agencies are trying to develop up-to-date learning equipments and techniques of teaching-learning Teachers are encouraged to attend training courses locally and abroad.

Another problem is that teachers in some specific subjects are scarced, such as in science, mathematics, computer science and English. Agencies concerned are trying to find incentives to persuade more people to be teachers in such subjects. Special remuneration and welfare benefits are offered to teachers in these subjects.

3) Promotion of Science, Mathematics and Thai Language Since the implementation of the 1992 National Education Plan, the Thai Government has set up a policy to promote gifted children, particular those gifted in the fields of science and mathematics. Several measures have been applied, such as encouraging youth to participate in international science and mathematics competitions abroad, organizing local and international contests of science achievements and organizing activities in Science Week. At the same time, the Government has promoted Thai identity by campaigning for the promotion of proper use of the Thai language and reading habits. Radio and television programmes have been produced. Contests on essay-writing, public speaking, reading and creative writing of literary work in Thai were organized. The Ministry of Education and publishing houses have coordinated in organizing the Annual Book Fair since 1972 which has increasingly attracted more and more public attention every year.

4.2.3 Development of the Students' Ethics and Morality
Besides promoting and developing learning ability and knowledge, Thailand has recognized the importance of strengthening its development effort in the area of ethics and morality among youth and the public in order to instill values vital to the development of the quality of life. Goals have been set in Article 8 of the Master Plan of Action on Education For All.

1) Curriculum on Ethics and Morality The Ministry of Education has specified the inclusion of the development of ethics and morality in the curriculum of both primary and secondary education In the primary education curriculum, the content is included in the character development experience group which aims at building up the learners' development of values, ideas, behaviors and personality through relevant activities, namely, ethical education, arts, physical education, boy and girl scouts, etc. The contents in the lower and higher secondary education level are included in the social sciences, work and occupation group subjects. The curriculum aims to create awareness of the students' values of ethics and morality so that they will possess desirable character: discipline, sportsmanship, love of work, morality at work. Supplementary activities are also provided too, such as such as boy and girl scouts, etc. The non-formal education curriculum of all levels have also integrated ethics and morality in social study and Thai language. Activities on the improvement of quality of life are also included to provide opportunities for non-formal education students to attend religious days' functions, public service activities, and local culture and art functions.

The Department of Curriculum and Instruction Development conducted the evaluation on the characteristics of morality and values of the students, namely, sense of sacrifice, determination for development, and public spirit (sense of responsibility, discipline and unity) every other year. Objective tests are used as tools. Students may choose to provide answers according to their perceptions. There were 4 rating scales; level 1- acknowledging, level 2- willing to comply/practice, level 3 - realizing the value and benefit, and level 4 - faith. The outcome is shown in the following :

Table showing percentage of primary students classified by level of sense of sacrifice and determination of development.

The outcome of the primary students' characteristics in 1992,1994, and 1996 showed that these characteristics were rated in order of priority as follows; realizing the value and benefit of sense of sacrifice and determination to develop, faith and then practice, awareness or acknowledging. The percentage of students who favoured the realization of the value and benefit increased every year, from 33.11% in 1992 to 80.66% in 1996.

Table showing percentage of students in lower secondary classes, by the criteria of the evaluation of characteristics of ethics and values (at the national level):

The evaluation of the characteristics of students at lower secondary level at the beginning of 1993 and 1995 identified that these characteristics were ranked as follows; realization of morality and values, faith, and compliance and acknowledge, respectively. The characteristics of realization increased from 48.55% in 1993 to 70.74% in 1995.

The above chart implies that students in primary and lower secondary levels tend to develop to be good citizens.

Despite a satisfactory outcome of the assessment, teaching-learning process on ethic and morality development was not limited. The majority of the teachers use conventional and inattractive method. The assessment and measurement were ignored. Little attention was given to the ethical development of those at the executive level. The Ministry of Education has taken up action to remedy the situation including the production of curriculum handbooks, promotion of the use of technology, promotion of personnel development.

2) Promotion, support and dissemination of ethics and morality Related government agencies are the Department of Religious Affairs, The Office for Ethics Development and the Department of Physical Education.

ุ Department of Religious Affairs conducts various activities to promote ethics and moralities among target groups in a multi-disciplinary approach. In addition to the provision of education to disadvantaged children at the Buddhist Dharma-Pali School, there are other activities. In pre-school centres, monasteries and masjids arrange classes for pre-school children, providing them with lessons and training concerning ethics and morality and prepare them physically, mentally and intellectually for actual education. The Sunday Centre for Buddhism Studies arrange courses on Buddhism for students and general public, inviting youth to participate in religious functions and devoted to the society. The Centre for Islamic Studies and Islamic Ethics at masjids (called Tadika / Fastudin Schools) provides courses on Islamism to Mulim students. In 1999, there are altogether 3,480 government-subsidized pre-school centres run by monasteries and masjids (with 225,580 children under their care). In addition, there are 1,168 Sunday Buddhist centres and 189 Islamic centres. More and more people are sending their children to study and participate in functions at these centres.

Besides religious centres, other types of cooperation exist among monasteries and schools to enable school age youth to have faith in the religion. Many schools invite monks to teach ethics and/or conduct preaching on religious days, or sometimes the students are invited to the monastery to perform religious functions.

Another form of providing support to ethics and morality is financial assistance provided to the provincial authority to organize courses on ethics to the students. In 1993, a number of 1,054 schools were subsidized and 930 teachers and personnel responsible for ethics were trained.

In 1996, the support was increased to 2,250 schools and 1,250 teachers and personnel. Support has also been given to the units in charge of training at sub-district. Financial support in 1992, 1994 and 1997 were provided to 4,507; 4,732; and 5,087 units respectively. Knowledge on ethics and morality is also disseminated through the media such as, radio, television programmed and printed materials in order to gain a wider access to the public.

ุ The Ethics-Promoting Office is an agency under the Ministry of Education, responsible for ethics promotion among government officials, teachers, students, youth, and the public. Plan and network on the promotion of ethics has been laid out in cooperation with private sector and many organizations. Several projects were conducted, for instance, promotion of ethics programmes through mass media and publication of information materials.

ุ Department of Physical Education initiates activities to promote ethics through activities such as boy/girl scouts, junior Red Cross members. The activities aim at encouraging youth to be honest, ethical, and devoted to the society. The Student Patrol Division under the Department of Physical Education is in charge of monitoring the students' behaviors and preventing drug problems in educational institutions. This is to build up immunity for the nation's youth and develop them to be good citizen with desirable characteristics.

4.2.4 Training in Essential Skills
As already mentioned in the previous chapter, the 1978 Primary and Secondary Education Curriculum (revised in 1990) aims at preparing students for livelihood, capable of undertaking profession or work consistent with their ability. The aims of each level of education are as follows;

Curriculum :
1) Primary education level Subjects in the group of work and occupation aim at work-oriented. Skills in work process are provided to enable the students to learn how to work in team. Students will learn how to develop their work and the process of work. Contents are divided into housework and agricultural work such as food and nutrition, fishery, etc.

2) Lower secondary education level Subjects are classified as the group of work and vocation at the lower secondary level. At upper secondary level, basic knowledge on vocations and professions is taught, aiming at enabling students to analyze, plan, and develop the quality of their work as well as their work attitude and cooperation with others. Focus is on the skills particularly in occupation, positive ideas on occupation, ability in management, cooperation in running enterprises or businesses and have good ethics in such undertaking.

3) Vocational education level Students are additionally taught subjects on strategies of running a successful business. Local successful businessmen are invited to give advice and techniques in their particular areas of specialization such as personnel management, marketing, request for capital assistance from funding sources, etc. Teachers will provide close supervision and guidance and counselling. Partial funding may be arranged, to be returned at later dates, to provide t students with a chance to start their business.

4) Non-formal education For those not in the formal education system, the public and private sectors always organize training courses for general public on various occupations. Activities are provided for particular requirements of various target groups. Of the training courses provided, those organized by the Department of Non-Formal Education are:

ท short-term occupational training courses, 225 hours of training, knowledge gained can be used for income generation. Inexpensive tuition fee, courses held during weekends and after office hours in vocational institutions throughout the country.

ท mobile vocational training for rural people, no tuition fee, cooperate with community leaders desiring to hold such training sessions, resource persons provided during weekends, attractive to public.

Skills Development and Employment :
Thailand has designated vocational training and development as strategies in national development to be included in the National Economic and Social Development Plan. The focus is placed on decentralization with a will for development in intellectual and skills of Thai people. The activities are systematically designed in compliance with the age.

Occupational training is provided both in formal and non-formal education. Several agencies are involved, such as the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Interior and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. Major objectives are: to create and develop skills, to enable people to earn more income, to prevent migration into town, to create new occupations to replace the old ones in some area, for instance, training hill-tribes to cultivate other crops to replace opium and other plants of addiction on highlands. In addition, the training also aims at maintaining the villagers in the border areas and assisting people affected from the fights at the borders.

The main target groups are the economically-disadvantaged, housewives and those engaged in agricultural labour, impoverished labour living in big cities, workers lacking opportunities to continue their studies, and those labour needing skills improvement. The Department of Skills Development is the main agency to be responsible for organizing training courses for new entrants. The following is a project of government agencies on vocational training and skills development:

Youth Development in Promotion of Technicians. This project was undertaken by the Office of Accelerated Rural Development (ARD), Ministry of Interior. The project began in 1989 and has led to work generating in the rural areas. Youth aged 15-25 received training in the areas of ARD. Courses offered are: mechanics, welders, electricians, pick-up truck maintenance men, and constructors. The duration of the courses were 120 days, 15-16 batch per year with about 16-30 trainees each. About 450 persons a year received this service. The trainees who finish the course will be awarded with certificates from the Skills Development Institute.

Types of Vocational Training and Skills Development:
Training courses are organized according to the target groups and readiness of relevant agencies. Training is given in class and field sites, as well as mobile. The duration of training ranges from 15 hours to 1 years, The management varies. A government agency may organize a training or allocates the budget to the community to undertake a training course and mobilize local resources to assist. The government may assist in marketing by finding outlets for their products. Such community or locality may carry out the production for their own consumption or for sale. Production may be made by individuals, households or groups such as groups of housewives and farmers, etc.

According to the survey by the National Statistical Office in 1994, 1996,1997 and 1998, the percentage of 55.9 of graduates from various institutions in 1994 were employed. The percentage has been on the decline since then. In 1994, only 55.9% of the graduates were employed and 55.5% and 51.2% in 1996 and 1997 respectively. The drop was very steep in 1998 when only 46.6%were able to be employed. More female are employed than male.

There are two types of unemployed people: those who keep looking out for jobs and those who never do so. The latter category consists mainly of those who continue to study ( accounting for more than 90% of jobless graduates). Therefore, the real percentage of graduates with unemployed, in 1994, 1996 and 1997, was only about 12.0, 11.5 and 11.9 percent respectively with a sharp increase to 20.0 per cent in 1998. This was because, since 1997, Thailand has been under an economic crisis, causing more people to become unemployed in 1998.

Table showing percentage of graduates at all levels of education, according to the employment status, 1994,1996,1997 and 1998:

Source: National Statistical Office. Office of the Prime Minister

Improvement of Health and Quality of Life:
The overview of the improvement of health and quality of life of Thai children indicated that during 1990 to 1998 a slight improvement on many aspects ranging from the following: weight of newborn babies exceeding 3,000 grams; proper nutrition for 8-15 year-old children; pre-natal care for pregnant mothers, proper child delivery and post-natal care; immunization for children aged under 1 year old and primary school pupils. All of these reflect that Thailand has paid more attention to the improvement of health and quality of life of the children. The survey of the quality of life conducted by the Department of Community Development showed some interesting figures:

ุ Newborn babies with weight exceeding 3,000 grams. In 1994, 1996 and 1998, the percentage of babies with proper weight at birth is at a satisfactory level in all regions ( higher than 70%).

ุ Number of children aged 6-15 with proper nutrition. In 1993, 1996 and 1998, children of this age range in all regions of Thailand complied with the criteria on nourishment for growth. ( the percentage is higher than 90).

ุ Pre-natal care for pregnant women. In 1993,1996 and 1998, the targets were achieved in all regions (the number of pregnant women receiving pre-natal care were higher than 75 per cent)

ุ Immunization for under one-year-old children against tuberculosis, pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, polio. measles, hepatitis-B. In 1994,1996 and 1998, children under 1 year-old in all regions of Thailand received immunization as the target.

ุ Number of children in primary school-age receiving the whole course of immunization(diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and measles). In 1994, 1996 and 1998, the number of primary school children receiving full immunization was 98.8 per cent, slightly lower that the target (99% or higher).

4.2.5 Education for Better Living :
Distance education media and printed materials in support of service for education have long been introduced to Thailand, particularly radio, which was first called "Witthayu Suksa (Education Radio)", produced by the Ministry of Education and the Public Relations Department. Expansion has been made of other types of learning network with best access to rural areas and the community, such as the establishment of village reading centres, public libraries, museums, mobile libraries, publications, groups of local intellectuals, television and education by satellite. Such networks are run by both public and private sectors to support and provide education and knowledge to improve a quality of life of the people. This is to be discussed as follows:

The Use of Distance Education Media and Information Dissemination:
The application of distance education media and information dissemination through radio, television, postal service, publication and satellite has long been undertaken by the public and private sectors and played an important role in delivering information and data to remote areas inaccessible to government services. Distance education is crucial in promoting education to people living in areas inaccesible to education in the past decade.

1) Radio, television and postal service The government, through the Ministry of Education, has made use of radio programmes for education to a limited extent for more than 20 years. At first, air time for educational programmes at radio stations could not obtained a wider coverage. The content of the programme broadcast at that time was mainly produced similarly to that of formal education. During 1978-1984, Thailand began to establish Radio Thailand for Education. With the support from the World Bank, it was launched in 1985. The station was established with the aim to provide both formal and non-formal education. Programmes are organized in the way that they can be used as educational tools in consistency with the curriculum. The service serves straight into schoolrooms, to teachers and students. Programmes organized are made to provide education to people in the non-formal education system for the improvement of their knowledge and ability which will be useful to their life-long education. In addition, there are knowledge-oriented programmes providing advice and stimulating innovative ideas on various issues, such as agriculture, health, income generation, law, administration, good citizenship, population studies, family planning, etc.

Programmes broadcast include school radio programmes, non-formal education by radio and postal service, agricultural extension through media, health and news dissemination, etc.

The Government also has the policy to let all radio and television stations broadcast programmes to supplement useful knowledge to young people and general public, especially those educationally- disadvantaged and living in remote areas. Regulations for broadcasting were as follows;

Radio. Not less than 25% of the total on air time for daily programmes shall be provided to news and education, with at least 15-minute religious (dharma) programme weekly.

Television. News and knowledge programmes must be on air not less than 15 percent of the air time for daily programmes. At least 30 minutes a day must be given to programmes for children.

The total number of radio stations both in AM and FM frequency is 525. Of these, 78 stations are in Bangkok, 448 stations are in the rural areas. (Source: Radio Inspection Unit, Public Relations Department). Of the television stations, both under the government operation and those leased to private sector, 9 stations are in Bangkok. There are 31 sub-stations upcountry, belonging to Radio and Television Thailand. The reports on the quality of life of Thai people in 1994,1996 and 1998 showed that the percentage of households receiving information through radio and television were 92.2, 95.9 and 98.5 percent respectively, which constitutes to the achievement of the target. (The targets for 1994 and 1996 were 85 per cent while that of 2001 is 95). It is assumed that distance media is able to assist people from all parts of the country to receive more useful news on a gradual and increasing basis.

The survey on radio programmes for education on Radio Thailand in 1996, conducted in 6 provinces: Lampang, Mae Hong Son, Surat Thani, Ranong, Ubon Ratcha Thani and Khon Kaen, it indicated that the listeners rated the following programmes as "good": non-formal education, open university's programme and radio programmes for school, agriculture, health, knowledge for life. A percentage of 45.7 of the listeners apply the knowledge to daily life. 12.8 percent identified that they had never used the knowledge gained at all. The number of the respondents keeps on increasing. Therefore it is assumed that programmes, such as knowledge about politics, administration, democracy development, career guidance, religion, ethics, spiritual development, environment conservation and health promotion are beneficial to the listeners.

2) Printed media Printed media produced by public and private sectors include information/technical materials, daily/weekly newspapers, features, Thai/foreign languages weekly/monthly magazines. It is found from the survey that materials published by private sector from the centres were over 180 titles and 165 titles from provinces (mostly in the form of local newspapers) Such materials offer knowledge- disseminating columns for the benefit of the readers, Subjects range from family, health, science, technology, etc. Some are specialized printed materials such as health magazine, mother and child magazine, folk technology magazines, etc.

3) Satellite The expansion of education opportunity of the government has brought to the establishment of the Centre for Distance Education by Satellite in 1994. Target groups would have more choices of their won to receive education with similar quality and standard. Distance education of the country is then arranged in 3 categories;

a) distance education by satellite for non-formal education in accordance with the curriculum of the non-formal education at primary to upper secondary levels. The service focuses on youth and people missing an educational opportunity, especially those in remote areas, labourers with little education, throughout the country.

b) distance education by satellite for formal primary to upper secondary education. An emphasis is put on quality and standard of instruction in subjects where teachers and specialists are scored, especially in educational institutions in remote areas.

c) informal distance education by satellite to suit the students' interest. This aims at providing knowledge and skill beneficial for daily life of the people.

The distance education by satellite focuses on fully-integrated of multimedia. There are many restraints concerning this, for instance, many schools and educational institutions cannot rearrange their time-table to be consistent with the time when the programme is on air. Not enough television sets are available for the purpose and no publication to supplement the instruction. In 1997, educational institutions and agencies participating in the programmes were allowed to use television programmes as they see fit, mostly in the form of supplementary aid to education. No particular specification has been set on the free-to-choose study type. The satellites also apply to long-distance meetings, training, seminars for specific groups such as: training teachers in English at primary level, training teachers of the disabled, and training for teachers in computer science.

Free elective subjects offered are : foreign languages, hotel management, mechanics, well-being, home economics, etc.

In addition to the setting up of the Thaicom Distance Learning Centre, in 1996, a television station was set up in the compound of the school at Klaikangwon Royal Villa, Hua Hin, to televise programmes to networking schools nationwide. At present, 1,504 schools have joined in the project, to be classified by agency as follows:

Table showing number of schools participating in Thaicom Distance Learning Project, in 1996, classified by agency:

Learning Network :
The development of learning networks was included in the 7th National Education Development Plan (1993-1996). The policy on this issue aimed to establish learning networks to enable people to increase their knowledge and ability by the community and society. Mobilization of cooperation among public and private sectors and local wisdom must be encouraged to play an important role in the management of sub-district and non-formal education that meets the requirement of the community. There was an evidence indicated that in 1990, 125 centres were established and in 1996 the centres were expanded to 789 centres covering all district. The centres aim at providing non-formal education in various forms as well as information dissemination services. The centres are mostly located monasteries, masjids or public-donated lands. At present, these centres play an important role in the management of community learning centres and support them to become focal points of learning networks in the community.

These are established to allow more involvement in the provision of education from the community. The centres also provide lifelong education to public and students in the community. These centres may be called by different names and located in different places such as:

ท Learning Centre : established in an educational institution, equivalent to educational institution.
ท Education Centre : established a public or private premises, equivalent to a branch educational institution.
ท Community Education Centre : established in the community, equivalent to a branch institution of education.

These centres are responsible for organizing activities in non-formal and informal education in various forms as required by a specific individual or groups. Education management with community participation has been continuously developed with an increasingly wider coverage. The implementation in the fiscal year 1998 could be summed up as follows: the establishment of 5,055 community learning centres (in 5,256 districts) with 4,942 teachers and 328,346 students. Besides community learning centres, which were developed from village reading centres, there are other types of other network to support community learning. These networks are public libraries, science centres, etc.

ท Public libraries aim to promote and encourage reading and provide services of libraries and village reading centres. In 1996, 77 provincial public libraries were established ( two provinces where 2 libraries each located were Nakhon Sawan and Songkhla) 570 district public libraries, and 34,369 village reading centres. In 1999, the numbers of district public libraries and village reading centres have been increased to a total of 660 libraries and 35,504 reading centres respectively. (This data covers only the libraries and reading centres supported by government budget.)

ท Mobile educational service unit is another type of educational service that encourages the public to gain more knowledge. A mobile public library provides educational activities with ready-made learning package of videotapes, computer, exhibits The services are concentrated on specific groups, such as people in congested areas, the disadvantaged, and impoverished people missing formal education and lacking in sources of knowledge and educational services. A mobile floating library provides an expansion of reading and learning to people living along the river and canals in order to create the awareness of clean waterways and conservation of natural environment. Volunteer teachers carrying bags of books visiting people living along the river so as to help those people who may not be able to come to the library boat by themselves get easy access to reading. A mobile volunteer library focuses on target groups who live in remote areas and have difficulties in accessing the library. Volunteers will bring bags of books to the community. These volunteers will collect the statistics of service reviewers and will change the materials and books monthly.

ท Science Educational Center aims to develop the pattern of the organization of educational activities, curriculum and development in the fields of science and technology, natural science and the environment to target groups in formal and non-formal education. It also serves as a training and development centre in science-related vocation such as proliferation and reproduction of various species of plants and animals. During the fiscal years 1995-1999, 12 science educational networking centres at the provincial level, in all the 12 educational regions was established.

ท Local Guru or Local Wisdom refers to local people with traditional knowledge and experiences in certain areas who transfer their knowledge and experiences to other people in the community. This is regarded as self-sufficiency and self dependency. During the past years, the Ministry of Education and agencies concerned have been established a directory of local wisdom and trying to develop database by information technology such as references on data of learning centres in the community, and local wisdom and local technology.

Moreover, several agencies are trying to integrate local wisdom with new technology, such as the registration of local components in traditional medicine by the Ministry of Public Health for quality control. More than 3,000 kinds of traditional medicine have been registered with the Ministry. The development of traditional medicine has also been made such as wax glazing traditional medicine pills or tablets, or the extract of essence to be used in modern medicine.

In conclusion, public and private sectors have been jointly developing learning networking. This cooperation aims to encourage the community to self-dependent by applying various sources of knowledge to improve a better quality of life of the people in the community.

Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board, Office of the Prime Minister. The 8th National Economic and Social Development Plan 1997-2001 (Bangkok, Met Sai Printing) p. 45
Ministry of Public Health, Department of Health. Report: Workshop on Health for Schoolchildren and Youth. Fiscal Year 1998 January 21-23, 1998. Elizabeth Hotel, Bangkok. P. 11.
Ministry of Public Health. Department of Health. Guidline for the operation of Health - Promoting Schools.
National Statistical Office. Office of the Prime Minister. Report: Survey of the Data on Children and Youth, 1997. P. 14.
National Statistical Office. Office of the Prime Minister. Report: Survey of the data on children and youth, 1997
Office of the National Primary Education Commission. Data on Education, School Year 1998
Office of Teachers Civil Service Commission. Personnel Administration Techniques Division. Teaching subjects specified as special qualifications for teacher civil servants (Amended) (Bangkok: Phatra Printing )
Ibid. 7 , P. 11
Office of the National Education Commission. The 1992 National Education Scheme.
Sombat Suwanphithak, How to evaluate projects (theories and practice) Photocopied document, 1988 p. 219
The Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board. "Indication of Well-Being and Policy Analysis." A newsletter of the National Economic and Social Development Board published under the technical assistance of the Asian Development Bank. (TA.NO.THA 29614)
Nutrition Research Institute, Evaluation: School Lunch Project (Mahidol University 1997) p. 32-33
Bureau of Educational Policy and Planning , Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education. Document supplementing the clarification of budget (Photocopied document)
The Office of the National Education Commission, Report : State of the Provision of Basic Education for All (Photocopied document). P. 21
Bureau of Educational Policy and Planning , Office of The Permanent Secretary. Ministry of Education. Report on the Follow-up and Evaluation on Supplementary Food (Milk) Programme,1999, P.13
Ibid. 15
Ibid. 12, p. 23
Office of Special Affairs, Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Report : the prevention and solution of drug problem and Report : the prevention and solution of AIDS problem. For the Fiscal year of 1996-1998.
Ibid.14, p. 25-29
The Department of Curriculum and Instruction Development. Report: Evaluation of the Primary Education Curriculum 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996 (Kuruspha Press, Bangkok)
The Department of Curriculum and Instruction Development. Report: Evaluation of the Lower Secondary Education Curriculum 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996 (Kuruspha Press, Bangkok)
Ibid. 20
Ibid. 21
Planning Division, Department of Religious Affairs
Planning Division, Department of Religious Affairs. Report: Evaluation of the operation by the Department of Religious Affairs during Fiscal Year 1996. P. 23/1
Planning Division, Department of Religious Affairs. Policy, Plan and Budget of the Department of Religious Affairs. 1997. P. 37
The Department of Community Development, Ministry of Interior. Report: Quality of Life of the Thai People Obtained From Basic Necessity Data. 1994-1998
Department of Public Relations. In celebration of the opening of Radio Thailand for Education. (Bangkok : Burapha Printing) p. 11-29
The Department of Public Relations. Law, Rules and Regulations on Radio and Television. (Photocopied document). P. 71
Journalists Association of Thailand. "Directory of Radio and Television Stations in Thailand." Distributed Materials on the 30th Anniversary of the Association 1995. P. 122-127
The Department of Public Relations. Summary Report : Survey of the role of Radio Thailand for Education in the country's development (photocopied document) 1998, p.2
The Department of Non-formal Education. Summary Report: Outcome of the Monitoring and Evaluation on Provision of Education by Satellites Programmes. June 1996-May 1998. (Photocopied Document). P. 2
Distance Learning by Satellites Foundation. Distance Learning by Satellites. Centre for Information Materials Production and Dissemination. December 1998. P. 11-13
DNFE, Ideas on Establishing Centres of Learning, Education, Community Education in Networking Organization. Kuruspha, Ladphrao, Bangkok. 1995. P. 4
Ibid. 32, P. 16
DNFE. The Road to Sor Ror Chor in Honour of Hs Majesty the King (Bangkok, Ram Thai Press). P. 9
DNFE Report: Evaluation of the 7th NFE Development Plan (1992-1996) Bangkok, 1998. P. 47
DNFE 'Details supplementing the explanation for expenditure budget 1999'
Kulthon Lertsuriyakul, "Public Library in Thailand" Journal of Non-formal Education, 2nd Year (3) February 1998. P. 19-24
Wilailak Rotchanasirat, ' Bouncing with supplementary activities for learning of Chalerm Rajakumari public library in Muang District, Ratcha Sima Province' Journal of Non-formal Education. 2nd Year (3) February 1998.
DNFE. Opening Ceremony of the Science Centre for Education. Ayutthaya Province, Art and Part Supplies Co. Ltd. Bangkok, 1998. P. 2
Ministry of Education. Directory of Information on Centres of Learning in Communities. Kuruspha Press, Lad Phrao, Bangkok 1998
Department of Fine Arts. Local Wisdom and Local Technology, Bangkok, 1998