Education in Thailand

By Robert Sedgwick

The structure of school education in Thailand is based on a 6+3+3 system: six years of primary school, three years of lower secondary school and another three years of upper secondary school. The language of instruction is Thai, but English is taught as a second language in most secondary schools. In 1995, the government made English language study compulsory beginning at the primary school level. [Continued]

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Georgia: Higher Education Reform Tackles Corruption, Graft Parliament passed a law on higher education Dec. 21 designed to eliminate avenues of corruption and inject competition into the environment of academic management. The radical changes called for in the bill affect the 200 higher education institutions in the country and give students from Georgia's 3,200 secondary schools the opportunity to compete for state funding. As early as this summer, high school graduates applying to college will take a standardized national assessment exam for universities. The students with the highest scores on the test will then receive vouchers redeemable as tuition at either state or accredited private institutions. In the past, individual departments within a university administered admissions exams, giving professors and university administrators powers that led to widespread graft. [Continued ... read full story in the Russia & CIS section]

Free Degrees to Fly

There used to be three near-certainties about higher education. It was supplied on a national basis, mostly to local students. It was government-regulated. And competition and profit were almost unknown concepts. As most education was publicly funded, the state had a big say in what was taught, to how many and for how long. Insofar as it existed at all, competition was a gentlemanly business; few educators thought much about customers, fewer about profit. [Continued]

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