ASEAN
ECONOMIC COMMUNITY IS COMING IN 2015
Thailand may encounter both crises and opportunities when the
Asean Economic Community is implemented in a few years. But if Thais prepare
thoroughly, the AEC would not affect them that badly and they may even find
opportunities, academics said recently.
However, after seeing no concrete move towards preparing for the
AEC by the government, Visanu Vongsinsirikul, director of Dhurakij Pundit
University’s Asean Community Preparation Centre (ACPC), the most influential
body with the power to prepare the country for changes, called on the
government to think and act as soon as possible. Otherwise Thailand would lag
behind other countries rather than be able to grasp the opportunities.
“Thailand has advantages over other Asean countries in terms of
geographical features, weather, races and cost of living. The question is how
can we make use of the advantages we have?” he said.
“Foreign languages, English in particular, are our big problem.
But we can learn them,” he said.
“We cannot escape the AEC. Even if we don’t want to work in other
Asean countries, citizens from those countries will certainly come to work in
Thailand,” he said.
The government should put preparing for the AEC on the national
agenda.
“Prime Minister (Yingluck Shinawatra) should assign each ministry
to study what it should do and present its own proposals to the premier. Then,
the ministries implement the proposals. If the government tries to achieve good
preparation and successfully does that, it will be the government’s great
accomplishment.”
ACPC is trying to educate people about the Asean community,
including the AEC, to help them understand Asean and inspire them to find
possible opportunities in the new setup.
ACPC has provided seminars and courses on the Asean community to
requesting agencies, including educational institutions, and has invited
experts on Asean to share their knowledge.
It has joined hands with the Thailand Development Research
Institute to carry out research on the state of preparation of institutions in
basic, vocational and higher education in Thailand and compare that to
Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia.
The centre has also surveyed business owners on how they think the
AEC will affect their business, what they want the government to do to help and
what kinds of employees they want.
The ACPC will help them voice what they want so that they can seek
assistance from the government. The survey results will also be used as a
guideline for education so educators will adjust their curricula to produce
more qualified workers for the AEC.
Entrepreneurs and educators should work together to revamp
curricula.
However, most teachers do not understand the AEC well enough while
officials at the Education Ministry who shape policies show inadequate
preparation.
The ministry should find more people with English communication
skills and let them teach at schools. The curricula revamp should encourage
students to think analytically and be able to solve problems so they are able
to handle problems when growing up. Teachers should study and understand the
ways of life and cultures of other Asean countries, he added.
Wiriyah Ruechaipanit, founder and coach of www.eduzones.com, a
popular education site in Thailand, said students should keep four things in
mind to deal with the coming challenges from the AEC.
“Only a bachelor’s diploma is not enough. They should learn an
occupation, like cooking or haircutting, that will give them more job
opportunities. They should learn how to search for knowledge by themselves.
When studying what they like, they should study it deeply. Lastly, they should
not forget to adhere to what people consider as morality,” he said.
“Now, teachers use only 50 per cent of their capacity. They are
interested in and alert to the challenges, but they have been working in the
same system for a long time. I’m not sure how much they will be able to prepare
students,” he said.
So, teachers should work harder and think “out of the box”, he
added.
Both academics recently hosted seminars together in each region of
the country to inspire teachers to prepare themselves and their students for
the AEC. The ACPC plans to organise more seminars in more provinces this year.
“Don’t wait until we experience the impact as it may be too late.
We should prepare ourselves first,” Visanu said as a warning to his fellow
countrymen.
