A Brief Guide to the Education System in Thailand

A Brief Guide to the Education System in Thailand

If you are coming to Thailand with the intention of spending a little more time than the average tourist on a 12-day tour, at some point you may begin to wonder about the way things work in this tropical SE Asian country.

Maybe you have kids of your own, or perhaps you are coming with the intention of finding work (which is highly restricted in the majority of fields for non-Thais).

You could even have found yourself on previous trips to the country’s capital wondering why there seem to be so many apparent students wandering around in Bangkok in such a diverse range of uniforms –- some of whom are clearly past school-leaving age.

Or maybe you are just interested in going a bit deeper into some of the cultural aspects of the structure and nuances of Thai society and are looking to find out more on how or why things seem to be so…’Thai’.

Either way, eventually you will come round to the topic of the education system in Thailand.

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Education in Thailand

It is often said that if you want to find anything out about a country take a deeper look at its system of education.

For the most part, in Thailand this is a rote-learning, memory-based system, which even the majority of Thais admit largely falls short of instilling any degree of independent or practical, critical thinking or creativity, at least in comparison to Western-style education systems.

(The majority of moneyed Thais will either send their kids to accredited international schools using only the English language which confer to the U.K. or U.S. curriculum, or even opt to send them abroad.)

That said, in Thailand the business of education is actually taken rather seriously (and indeed it is a business), with the majority of the Thai population beginning school with early years Nursery and Kindergarten classes somewhere between the ages of 2 and 4, and culminating in a 4-year university program until the age of 22 (at least for those able to afford it).

That’s a total of 20 years spent in the Thai schooling system, at least for those able to access the higher levels of education which in this country are pretty much a mandatory requirement these days in terms of securing even a half-decent opportunity of employment.

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And in today’s competitive climate the majority of low to middle and middle income families will put their young through a Master’s Program which has also become something of a standard in Thailand in many highly-competitive fields of employment, which tend to be largely grounded in left-brained, maths and science-based skill sets.

Unfortunately that discounts the poorer sectors of a largely divided society from having much along the lines of a wide range of employment opportunities, and is one of the huge inequality issues still highly prevalent in Thai society.

Hence the huge numbers of unskilled and largely uneducated migrant workers from the provinces driving taxis, labouring in the service sector, working as low-paid security guards devoid of motivation, and otherwise trying to desperately find any other way to hustle for a living. ,

So let’s take a deeper delve into the education system as far as Thailand is concerned, and in particular Bangkok. The capital is considered to be the hub of many things in this country, including where the widest range of schools and the best education options are offered.

Our brief guide to the education system in Thailand offers a few various insights about the different types of schooling to be found in the country along with its significance and relationship to Thai culture and society.

1. State Schools

The majority of Thai school learners will attend a government, or state-run school, which has a mandatory attendance age of 7-15 years old.

These places also run early years facilities though, which the majority of Thai parents seem to think is the best option. In Thailand, and particularly in Bangkok, the emphasis for many seems to be getting in the hours, days, months and years in anything even vaguely resembling an educational establishment, as the belief is that attendance equates with knowledge. 

This state school system is a form of education that is offered free to all Thais, and so has huge numbers of students in the schools, with sometimes as many as 60 children (or teenagers) in any one class in some cases.

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Here the standard Thai style of rote learning is in full effect, and as this is largely a test-based system based on rote, revision, and memory, the students are subjected to what might seem like a huge number of tests even from a very early age.

Although grades are given in classes and tests, no-one can actually fail to achieve at least the basic required level in the majority of exams, even if it means re-taking the tests, which is commonplace for under-achievers. This process will be repeated until they finally achieve the basic requirement or to ‘pass’ the test.

The state schools are for the most part hugely underfunded, and suffer from a lack of modern equipment, with few of the classrooms even being air-conditioned (rather they will have a huge fan in the centre of the ceiling which circulates the warm humidity at a rapid pace.

English and Other Languages

Foreign or native English-speaking teachers are in little evidence in these establishments. This is largely due to the very low levels of English or other languages in actual use in the school, as well as the very low pay bracket and poor conditions that are largely unsuitable for many teachers from western countries.

Needless to say, as these schools still need native English teachers for particular programs that they offer as a selling point, they do tend to employ largely unqualified personnel, or on odd occasions newly-qualified ESL teachers looking to gain experience, which tend to be hard-won in the majority of the places.

Entrance Exams

The schools in Bangkok are highly competitive, and the entrance process for some of the more well-regarded schools is a little, erm…complex.

Needless to say the students from families with more ‘resources’ are likely to be in the more famous or esteemed state schools, which for some reason all have their own, individual uniforms to allow easy identification.

The majority of state schools are also maths and science focused, with little emphasis on any kind of arts or creative endeavours, which is a common gripe of many young learners who know they are being geared towards a life of left-brained activity.

2. Private Schools

There is a huge range of education institutions in Thailand that may fall under the ‘private’ sector rather than that of the state.

They could come by way of single-gender schools (although there are some single-sex state schools), Catholic schools, Bi-lingual schools, or, in the worst cases, they could simply be fee-paying schools willing to accept the students who have been expelled from various other facilities and have no other options left!

So the private schools tend to be fee-paying institutions, and this can vary widely according to various factors such as the reputation of the school, along with the appearance and age of the building itself.

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But it may be more a case of the programs being offered, the number of students in classes (which usually tends to be much smaller than in state schools) and any other specifics like sports facilities and special programs etc.

Although there still seems to be a focus on maths and science-based areas of study in these schools, as well and them using the tried-and-tested, somewhat uninspiring rote learning system, there does tend to be a little more flexibility and scope on the curriculum in some of these institutions than in the state schools.

This could mean occasional art classes, or possibly a wider range of language options, and there is often some form of English Program being offered (at a much higher cost than the regular program).

Many Thai parents who can afford to will send their kids to a private school in a bid to escape the cramped classrooms and boot-camp approach of the government schools, aside from the fact that they may have some special program of interest.

For the most part the facilities and general state of affairs are likely to be much improved in the private schools when compared to government institutions, largely due to the fees, which are usually paid on a term-by-term basis.

As with the state schools in Thailand, and especially in Bangkok, ‘extra’ or ‘special’ classes are huge, and run pretty much every day, in every subject, for those who wish to gain ‘extra knowledge’ other than what is covered in the classes.

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This is largely a two-fold exercise in that it generates extra income for the school, and also allows the low-paid teachers an opportunity to boost their income by engaging in these ‘special’ classes that the students pay extra for.

These classes also run on weekends and are snapped up by the kids whose parents subscribe to the ‘more is more’ approach and believe their children will get some kind of competitive edge from their attendance.

3. International Schools

International schools do exist to some degree across the breadth of the country, although again the most prominent and well-established ones tend to be in the capital.

Again there is something of a broad range of institutions claiming to be under the ‘International School’ banner, but some of them are nothing more than bi-lingual Thai schools with English Programs.

This is also the case with many Thai universities that offer international programs that are often taught (in a mix of Thai and English) for the most part by Thai teachers.

The real international schools in Thailand teach the U.K. or U.S. curriculums and employ only native English-speaking teachers from those countries, and you may find Bangkok a range of British, American and Australian international schools running the curriculums of those respective countries.

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Needless to say, these institutions tend to be enormously expensive, and unfortunately remain the reserve of the moneyed class in Thailand. And that’s big money by anyone’s standards.

Term fees can be as high (or even higher in some instances) as 500,000 baht, which is well out of the grasp of most middle-income earners in Thailand. One of the main issues with Thai society remains the huge gap between not only high and low earnings, but even between high and middle income.

The pressure on results comes from the parents for the majority of learners in international schools in Thailand, and with those kinds of fees involved it’s no real wonder.

4. Tutor Schools

Tutoring schools in Bangkok are a huge factor in relation to the education system in Thailand.

There are a couple of prime reasons why there are just so many tutoring schools, and all of them are private enterprises catering to everything from extra maths classes, to English classes with native speakers, to preparation for the airline industry and more.

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As Thailand has such a test-taking culture and approach to education, many of these tutoring schools are either run by teachers or employ teachers who will ‘teach’ the students how to take the endless stream of tests that they will encounter.

This is prized extra income for Thai teachers who consider themselves grossly underpaid, which is reflected in their attitude and approach to teaching, often facilitating a somewhat dour demeanour which does not completely escape the attention of the students.

These can be anything from high school entrance exams, to final exams, college entrance exams, or even international exams for higher education abroad (although the majority of these will be taught by academic native speakers).

Another reason why these schools feature so heavily in the lives of many young learners is that many believe the Thai education systems to be inadequate, and this is fuelled by a ‘more is more’, ‘cram’ approach to towards what they basically consider as information gathering for tests that are largely multiple choice.

It is common for the majority of tutoring schools, especially the better-known, city-centre affairs, to host packed classes both on evenings and weekends, to exhausted students who can afford the extra tuition, and who feel that the cost is well worth it as it will give their kids some kind of edge in an increasingly competitive world.