Thailand to adjust educational courses to suit ASEAN Community

BANGKOK, December 22 (TNA) - Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has ordered educational authorities to adjust courses to suit demand of regional labour markets, as part of Thailand's preparations for the establishment of the ASEAN Community by 2015. Yingluck said that she wants all concerned ministries to join forces to improve the country's educational services to prepare Thai students for employment in the context of the ASEAN Community. The Pheu Thai premier gave the policy when she held a two-hour meeting with heads of educational offices and other senior authorities at the Education Ministry in Bangkok on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Permanent Secretary for Education Sasithara Pichaichannarong said the meeting learned that 13 million out of 16 million Thai children at learning ages were found to be under the care of the Education Ministry; while about one million of them were handled by other agencies including local administrative organizations. Besides, authorities are worried that a number of boys dropped out at the sixth grade of primary schools and in the last year of junior high schools. Sasithara revealed that she and other agencies concerned were, therefore, assigned by the prime minister to study the suitable development of children from their primary school ages and to see what the rest two million children do after dropping out and what should be done to develop them to be good adults. According to the senior Education Ministry official, the prime minister also agreed with promoting the teaching of English and the languages of other Southeast Asian nations to prepare Thai students for the formation of a single community of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). (TNA)