Introduction

Recognizing the importance of education and its significant contribution to the enhancement of the quality of life, the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand of 1997 has included an unprecedented large number of provisions relating to education. For instance, providing twelve-year basic education at free of charge, incremental involvement of local administration organizations in education, and the promulgation of the first education act are among ambitious initiatives stipulated in the Constitution. As part of this attempt, the enactment of the National Education Act of 1999 has timely set a stage of the education reform in Thailand reflected by the introduction of learning reform and lifelong learning, education decentralization and refinancing, teacher reform as well as educational standard and quality assurance.

Even though phases of the reform implementation have been outlined by law, effective strategies and processes for sustainable changes have enormously left to be identified. The Office of the National Education Commission of Thailand (ONEC), under the collaboration of many international organizations and embassies in Thailand, thus agree to organize the First International Forum on Education Reform: Experience in Selected Countries between 30 July - 2 August 2001 in Bangkok, Thailand, to broaden a comparative perspective on education reform from the experiences of Australia, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, and Thailand.

Objective

- to review major trends and processes of education reform;
- to make a comparative analysis of the educational reform based on experiences of selected countries;
- to identify and document both successful and unsuccessful strategies of education reform; and
- to create an international network of institutions, policy makers, and researchers engaged in education reform such as those from the World Bank, HKIEd, NIER, KEDI, and ONEC.

Theme

In the quest for education initiatives, strategies, and processes to meet the future challenges, various themes of education reform have emerged in selected countries such as
- reform of learning, curriculum, and pedagogy;
- decentralization, school-based management, and school finance;
- teacher reform;
- education standards and quality assurance;
- higher education reform; and
- information and communication technologies for education and lifelong learning

Participants

1. Prominent experts and educators from selected countries
2. Representatives from international organizations such as the World Bank, UNESCO, UNDP as well as diplomats from participating countires.
3. Thai education policy makers, educators, academics, and representatives from various agencies
4. Representatives from private sector

Activities

1. Organizer Meeting (invitation only)
A forum for researchers from the countries participating in the forum, education policy makers, and representatives from co-sponsors will discuss and exchange information and learning experiences from all participating countries. The output of this session will result in an analysis of sustainable strategies and processes of education reform: experiences from selected countries.

2. Official Opening /Keynote Address/ Plenary Session
This open-to-the-public session will be launched with brief opening ceremony presided by Chairman of the National Education Commission of Thailand. After that, a renowned guest speaker and a group of international/Thai experts will address the forum on the topic: International Perspective of Education Reform: Lessons from Effective Strategy and Process in Selected Countries.

3. Paper Presentation
A group of researchers will do short presentations based on his/her research paper. This session will basically envision all participants about initiatives, trends, strategies, and processes needed for reform implementation from international perspectives.

4. Group Discussion
All participants will be divided into small groups to discuss topics explored in all research papers. In each group, at least one international researcher will be assigned to take part and stimulate fruitful conversation, comment, and conclusion needed for group reports session on August 2.

5. Group Report Session
The representatives from organizing committee will be invited to present the reflections and conclusions derived from two-day group discussions.

6. Forum Summation
A prominent expert will be invited to draw his/her conclusion from the forum that might be useful to rethink and redesign concurrent education reforms in many countries.

Tentative Program

Dates
Sessions July 30 July 31 August 1 August 2
AM session Executive Meeting Official Opening / Keynote Speech
/Plenary Session 3 Paper Presentation 3 Paper
Presentation
/Group Report/
Forum Summation
PM session Executive
Meeting 2 Paper Presentation /Group Discussion 2 Paper
Presentation
/Group
Discussion -
Evening Organizer Banquet - - -

Call for Paper

As a core host, ONEC will commission a number of research papers related to education reforms in selected countries. Each accepted paper will be briefly presented at the forum by the researchers on July 31 and August 1. Besides, these commissioned researchers are also required to participate in the group discussion on the same dates.

Medium of the Forum

English

Publication

Research papers, keynote speech, texts, and summaries of group discussions from every session will be documented in the form of a Forum' s proceeding paper issued in February 2002.

Expected Outcome

1. A set of effective strategies and sustainable process for education reform in 10 countries
2. MOU for Cooperation between participating countries of the forum
3. Publication and proceedings
4. Network of policy makers and researchers for education reform in 10 countries

Further Information

The Forum Secretariat
c/o International Cooperation and Relations Center for Education Reform
The Office of the National Education Commission (ONEC)
Sukhothai Rd., Dusit, Bangkok 10330
Tel. : (662) 668-7123 Ext. 2430, 2432
Fax.: (662) 243-2787
E-mail: sydmap4@onec.go.th