Wake-up call for Thai society

There's a lot to be worried about - quality of education, drug abuse, nicotine and alcohol addiction, and pollution are all getting worse
Published on March 11, 2008
Thai society is creaking with health, environmental, crime and drug-addiction problems, while its education system is still inferior to that of neighbouring countries.
Ampon Kittiampon, permanent secretary of the National Economic and Social Development Board, yesterday made public the worrying report on the state of Thai society during the fourth quarter of 2007 (October to December).
The positives were just a few. The employment situation was healthier with an average of 36.25 million working people - 1.6 per cent up from the same period the previous year, he said.
Educational opportunities also increased at all levels. However, the quality of education continued to fall in the key areas of reading, mathematics and science.
Crisis in education
The results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), slumped to below average, while other Asian countries obtained higher scores, Ampon said.
Thai education institutes still lack quality personnel as can be seen from the fact that 30,000 teachers do not teach the subjects they graduated in and teachers give less importance to normal classes as compared to tutoring classes.
Health situation
With regards to health, there was a 9.6-per-cent increase in people put on watch for 11 harmful diseases.
At top of the list was hand, foot and mouth disease - with 8,381 patients on watch, compared to 1,368 people in the same period the previous year.
This was followed by dengue fever and cholera.
Thais had less access to social security, or public safety or protection for their property.
Drug abuse was on the rise, especially among children and youths. The number of drug-related cases jumped sharply from 26,790 last year to 39,106, a 46-per-cent increase
Crime saw a 10.6-per-cent increase.
Addictions also witnessed increased spending with 2.9 per cent more Thais spending on cigarettes.
About Bt44 billion were spent on alcohol, a 4.1-per-cent increase.
Those aged 15 to 24 drank alcohol more frequently, especially university students, with 21.1 per cent saying they had increased their alcohol consumption.
The environmental scene also saw a decline with Bangkok and other cities suffering more from noise, garbage and water pollution.
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