The Ministry of Education announced it will cure the scourge of illiteracy by announcing a policy to get every student reading and writing by the end of this year.
Outlining the new year’s objectives, Education Minister Narong Pipattanasai announced the ambitious goal yesterday and declared that 2015 would be the year Thailand is free of illiterate students.
“I’m 110 percent confident that the policy will successful,” Narong said. “I believe every related sector will take the matter seriously and will accomplish the policy, especially the teachers and school staff.”
There are approximately 25,000 illiterate students nationwide, most are children of immigrants who do not use Thai as their primary language. Once they start going to school, they are struggling to learn, according to Narong.
“If we take this seriously, the result should be observable within only three to four months. The students should be able to read and write by that time. But how good they are will depend on the schools and the students themselves as well.”
Each school will be instructed to collect data on all students’ reading and writing abilities while the ministry will help suggest activity plans to help solve the problem. Schools must devise measures to insure every teacher, not only Thai language teachers, will help each student to read and write.
The process should be reported back to the Office of the Basic Education Commision, Manager reported.
Photo: Ministry of Education
