ICT and Non-formal Education in Thailand
Mr.
Thongjoon Khankhow
1. Background
Office of the Non-Formal Education Commission (ONFEC), one of the administrative units under the Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education has been established since July 7, 2003 as the consequence of the education reform process through the status change of the Department of Non-Formal Education due to several factors, namely economic crisis within the country in 1997, structural adjustment, educational reform and government organizational reform. The reform of the national education system, which resulted in the promulgation of the 1999 National Education Act, is a major component leading to the restructuring of the administrative system within the Ministry of Education (MOE) and to the crucial change in the policy and implementation strategy in non-formal education. These include the developmental vision of the Ninth National Economic and Social Development Plan which stated that: The Thai society should be a knowledge-based and learning society. Learning opportunities should be created for all Thai people with the intention to promote lifelong learning so that people will be able to cope with today’s rapid changing conditions. Another component is the new National Educational Act, Section 4 of which stated that: The Thai education should be a lifelong education, resulting from the integration of formal, non-formal and informal education so as to build capacity in development of continuous lifelong learning for promotion of people’s quality of life. Section 15 of the Act also emphasized that: There shall be three types of education, formal, non-formal and informal education. Non-formal education shall have flexibility in determining the aims, modalities, management procedures, duration assessment and evaluation conditional to its completion. The contents and curricula for non-formal education shall be appropriate for and responding to the requirement and meet the needs of individual groups of learners. Informal education shall enable learners to learn by themselves - according to their interest, potentialities, readiness and opportunities available from persons, society, environment, media or other sources of knowledge.
Roles of ONFEC
The main tasks of ONFEC are to provide and support the services of non-formal and informal education to promote lifelong learning among the out-of-school target groups and those having completed basic and higher education to make them obtain lifelong learning continuously with systematic learning process that truly enable them to search for knowledge and to apply it in their real life. Meanwhile, ONFEC also extends its more services to those underprivileged who lack the opportunity in basic education. These services are provided in the forms of non-formal and informal education which are mostly appropriate to each particular target group.
Activities of ONFEC
NFE
programs and activities provided by ONFEC can be categorized into three main
areas: basic education, vocational education and skills training, as well as
information services.
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2. ICT and Non-formal Education
The draft ICT Master Plan for 2005-2008 of ONFEC focuses on four areas: facilitating lifelong learning of Thai people through ICT, improving the quality of ICT services both for administration and for lifelong learning, providing ICT infrastructures for local learning centers and ICT personnel development.
According to the plan, the ONFEC aims to develop various electronic learning materials, improve the quality of distance education, set up a courseware center, promote e-learning, develop e-books and set up e-libraries. To improve the quality of ICT administration and services, an ICT operation will be established to co-ordinate with other organizations and to promote of the use of ICT in administration and e-service. The ONFEC plans to work with GO/Ngo and local communities to improve ICT infrastructure in the local learning centers to share resources, especially computers and licensed software. Regarding ICT development, the ONFEC will organize training workshops on the use of ICT to both non-formal educators as well as non-formal education students. It will promote research and development of ICT for lifelong learning.
Current status of ICT in non-formal education
Students to Computer Ratio (2004)
|
Number of Students |
Number of PCs |
Number of Students per 1 PC |
|
819,185 |
3,339 |
245 |
Percentage of telephone line
access of libraries and non-formal
education centers
|
Number of NFE centers |
Number of centers with telephone line access |
Percentage |
|
1,863 |
1,727 |
92.70 |
Percentage of internet access of
libraries and non-formal
education centers
|
Number of NFE centers |
Number of centers with internet access |
Percentage |
|
1,854 |
683 |
36.84 |
Note: All 1,854 is expected to have access to EdNet by the end of 2004
Number of non-formal education personnel who have attended ICT training workshop
|
Number of personnel |
Number of personnel who have attended ICT training |
Percentage |
|
17,780 |
4,545 |
25.56 |
In Non-formal Education, ICT is seen as a development tools for lifelong learning. ICT plays a major role both in educational management and improving the quality of education. ICT is seen as a tool for the formulation of various databases as well as for the dissemination of knowledge and information to suit the needs of target people. ONFEC has targeted to compile a database of workers throughout the country to map out educational programs to upgrade their education level. Also, in non-formal basic education, the same IT program has been used in all non-formal institutions to bring about the effectiveness of education management and to make sure that information can be exchanged and transferred. The ONFEC is responsible for the development of the IT program and conducting training workshops for non-formal education personnel. An online curriculum bank is now in progress. While the ONFEC takes care of the internet server and the necessary software, regional non-formal education centers compiles local curriculum in their respective regions and upload them onto the server. This will make it possible for curriculum sharing among various educational institutions; both formal and non-formal education.
Web
sites have been heavily used by non-formal organizations. Most provincial
non-formal education centers have their own web sites. Thanks to the Ednet project
which provides non-formal education centers free access to the internet via
high speed leased lines and dial-up modems. The ONFEC has allocated budget for
the provincial centers and the regional centers to set up and maintain internet
servers. Personnel training on server administration are held regularly. Many
provincial centers host their web sites on ONFEC server in
Educational Television
The Center for Education
Technology (CET) under ONFEC is responsible for the production and broadcasting
of educational radio and television programs, educational computer media, media
for the disabled, printed materials, as well as video and audio tapes to
supplement existing materials in the formal, non-formal and life-long education
sectors. CET runs Educational Television Station (ETV), broadcasting on KU -BAND DIGITAL (DIRECT TO HOME). ETV
broadcasts 15 hours a day to support formal, non-formal and informal education
system. ONFEC has distributed ETV satellite receiving sets to
various non-formal education learning centers as well as to primary schools
throughout the country.
CET also runs an educational radio station to support formal education,
non-formal education and informal education. CET’s radio station is on the air
14 hours a day, 5 days a week on FM 92 MHz and AM
1161 KHz.
Distance Education
Distance Education is a mode of delivery in non-formal education. Other modes are group study and self-study. The Distance Education Institute (DSI) coordinates distance education of the ONFEC as well as renders distance education to the public. Two types of courses are offered through distance education, basic education or school equivalency programs and short courses for life-long education. For basic education, the main materials used are printed materials. In some courses, where there is a need, there are some accompanying VCD materials also. Students pursue their own study. Some may attend tutoring classes. They are required to take examination at the end of a semester. Furthermore, they are required to attend a seminar before graduation. DSI developed a web site to communicate with distance education students. Web board is the main channel of communication.
DSI also offers short courses through distance education. Regional non-formal education centers joins in this effort to offer short courses. Courses are developed and shared among DSI and regional non-formal education centers. The main educational materials used are printed materials and VCD’s.
E-learning
The Central Regional Non-formal Education Center (CRNFE) offers e-learning on short courses for the public. The URL of the e-learning web site is http://www.crnfe.ac.th. As of March 31, 2006, there are 4,500 students enrolled to the system. At present, there are 16 short courses that require registration. Registration is free. However, if a student needs certification, he must apply for an examination. He chooses his own proctor and venue for the test. The proctor must meet the criteria set by CRNFE. After approval, CRNFE then sends exam paper to the proctor. The examination is more of a take home examination in nature. It requires students to put what he has learned into practice within his own settings and environment. Student examination can be directly uploaded to CRNFE’s web site or it can be sent to CRNFE by using conventional mail. Minimum fee is charged for the examination.
The CRNFE’s web site has its own LMS. It was created with PHP&MySOL by CRNFE’s staff. The LMS tracks individual student records and compiles various reports which are specific to the needs of CRNFEC. Reports include numbers of students by province, number of students enrolled in each course and number of students during a certain period of time. It automatically checks and sends birthday greetings to students every day. It also allow student to add their names to the mailing list to receive news and information via email. The registration system checks if the student email is working by requiring the student to confirm his registration from his email. Students interact with other students and teachers through web boards, email and telephone calls.
To have people visit the web site, CRNFEC offers other services other than the short courses. The most popular one is the vocational VCD request. Other services are short courses which do not require registration, program download, CAI request, and email subscription to certain courses.
3. Challenges
There are some challenges that the ONFEC needs to overcome to reach its goal in ICT for lifelong education. Some of the challenges are:
· Lack of qualified ICT personnel
· Low incentives for ICT personnel
· Inadequate financial support for ICT development
· Unfavorable attitudes of people about ICT
· Virus attacks from the internet and elsewhere
· High price of ICT equipment