THAI politicians still believe that throwing money at the problem will bring improvement in our schools, and help them line their own pockets.

The failure of Thai educational reform does not lie in a lack of money, but in the failure to spend that money wisely to improve opportunities for our students. It is sad that we have squandered, or lost through corruption, vast sums of money earmarked for future generations.

Contrary to the government's belief that materials such as computer tablets will provide a miracle cure for the deteriorating quality of Thai education standards, prominent economist Dr Ammar Siamwalla says that the quality of teachers is the key to reform in our school system, and the failure of educational reform is not because of insufficient financial resources.

Dr Ammar makes a solid argument in a report to be presented to the Thailand Development Research Institute's seminar on education that lack of budget is not the issue. In fact, the education budget has been doubled over the past ten years. At present, it accounts for 4 per cent of GDP.

Thai decision-makers tend to blame poor education standards on a lack of financial support, and so justify their plans to seek more money to finance their new projects. But expenditure on education is at a similar level to other countries in the region, which have seen the performance of their students improve.

In addition, the average salary of teachers in public schools increased from Bt15,000 per month in 2001 to Bt24,000 in 2010, according to the National Statistical Office. Thai students also spend more hours in class than their counterparts in neighbouring countries. This is not to mention the time and money spent by Thai students and their parents in extracurricular cram schools and tutoring schools.

However, the overall performance of Thai students is still declining. The O-Net test scores of Thai students are lower when compared to students in other countries. There is also a great disparity in the quality of schooling. While the standards in most state schools have been declining, students from top private and international schools here often win international awards for their excellence in maths and science.

This shows that we have focused on the wrong issues in the attempt to reform our education system. Decision-makers tend to focus on the quantitative aspect, such as procurement of new materials, buildings, which can be translated into an amount of money. They have ignored the qualitative side, which means the quality of teachers, the curriculum, or the classroom size, all of which directly contribute to the students' learning experience. But these issues are overlooked by Thai education ministers and politicians because they do not lead to lucrative projects or vote-grabbing slogans during election campaigns.

As a result, Thai students are stuck in a bad system while politicians exploit financial resources. The government plans to distribute computer tablets to students nationwide soon, even though teachers are not sufficiently prepared to instruct and guide students to ensure that the gadgets contribute to a worthwhile learning experience.

Furthermore, these cheap tablets from China are likely to end up as piles of obsolete waste in a few short months. In short, the massive amount of money due to be spent on these tablets will again not serve any valuable purpose.

Educational reform takes years to accomplish, as people who understand the issue will confirm. Thai educators meanwhile are concerned about these sideline projects that detract from the energy and determination needed to give our students a jumpstart in life.The Nation/ANN