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Opening Address by H.E. Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva, Prime Minister of Thailand
on The 4th World Teachers' Day in Thailand and 12th UNESCO-APEID International Conference,
"Quality Innovations for Teaching and Learning",
24 March 2009, Impact Muang Thong Thani.
Minister of Education,
Director of UNESCO, Bangkok,
Distinguished Guests and Participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen,It is my great honour to be here today at the opening of the 12th UNESCO-APEID International Conference in Thailand and to celebrate the 4th World Teachers' Day.
The recognition of a teacher's day is no stranger to us. Thailand has observed the National Teacher's Day, "16 January", since 1957. And with the inauguration of the World Teacher's Day in 1994, we have proudly joined other member countries of UNESCO in celebrating this important day to mark our awareness and appreciation of the crucial role and contribution of teachers around the world. This is also the occasion to reaffirm our commitments to improving both the professional standards and the quality of life of our teachers.
I greatly appreciate the initiative of the Ministry of Education and its partners, namely, UNESCO, British Council, and SEAMEO in organizing, on this occasion, the International Conference on a crucial topic - one which is relevant to the challenges of our times - "Quality Innovation for Teaching and Learning".
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The quality of our students and the education system as a whole rest ultimately on the quality of our teachers. Amidst today's rapid socio-economic changes, the teachers are further entrusted with greater responsibilities in preparing our future generations for the possible imperatives they may face in life.
Improving the quality of our teachers has thus been accorded a top priority by my government. Importance has been given to both teachers' preparation and career development, which do not only focus on academic excellence but also on enhancing morality and ethics.
With regard to new teachers' preparation, a new five-year teachers-training programme is already being implemented to ensure that all new teachers are sufficiently prepared with at least one year of practical teaching experience prior to entry into the profession. Moreover, to ensure professional development, in-service training and professional certification systems have been established to continually assess the quality of teaching. Teachers reaching high professional standards are now entitled to receive remunerations equivalent to those of the highest-ranking government officials without having to leave the classrooms.
While we are making progress in raising the professional status of teachers, we have much to learn from the experiences of all of you, distinguished participants, from nearly all parts of the world. I am confident that with the wealth of experiences and wisdom gathered at this International Conference, we will be able to identify many concrete measures to strengthen the professional development of teachers worldwide. In this regard, I look forward to receiving your recommendations after this conference.
Meanwhile, in Thailand, we have been proceeding with measures to upgrade the quality of teaching and learning. And as you all recognise, while we are facing the current global economic downturn we are determined to protect the opportunities and education for our children. Over 13,000 schools, mostly in the rural areas, are facing serious shortages of qualified teachers resulting from the various retirement schemes carried out during the past 9 years. The government is recruiting over 12,000 new teachers in the academic fields urgently needed by the schools. About 17 percent of the newly recruited teachers were former scholarship recipients who had been selected from secondary school graduates for academic achievements to enter the teaching profession. The government is also launching a project entitled "Returning teachers to the classrooms", under which schools will be provided with administrative assistance to relieve many teachers of the various routine administrative and financial duties which consume over 30 percent of their time.
This is indeed part of the economic stimulus package as well as our programme to ensure that basic education for 15 years is provided free to our students, which means we are allocating additional 18 billion baht budget as part of our stimulus package. As a result, the education budget now amounts to 21.8 percent of the total government expenditure. This shows the importance and priority my government gives in the area of education. This funding will provide all students with free tuitions, uniforms, textbooks, as well as educational supplies and enable schools to organize additional co-curricular activities such as scouting, camping, academic tutoring, and computer and internet services outside regular class hours. It is hoped that these additional supports will enrich the teaching and learning processes and improve the quality of lives of the students.
But as I mentioned before, ultimately what our children will get out of the education system rests on the quality and abilities of our teachers. I am pleased to see a number of video presentations taken by a number of our local teachers which provide good examples of what innovations can do as far as teaching is concerned. And I am sure we can learn from many participants equally innovative initiatives that are taken around the world. We do indeed live in a very challenging time of rapid changes. This means, of course, that we have to introduce new skills and values to our children, including how to combine the global and local; how to combine traditional method with the necessary knowledge for the modern world. These are all the challenges that we all face. I hope that during this conference many ideas will be exchanged and that the sharing of experiences will lead to more innovations and development in teaching and learning.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to thank all of you for having taken your time to attend this conference. I wish you every success in your deliberations as well as a pleasant stay in Thailand.
Thank you very much.
Government Spokesman Bureau
Foreign Relations Division