The Thai Qualifications Framework (TQF), intended to allow credit
transfers among universities in Asean countries, is expected to be completed
this year, the Office of the Higher Education Commission (Ohec) said.
An Ohec source said the TQF of
about 80 programmes, including medicine and dentistry, has been developed.
"Each Asean member is also
creating their own qualifications framework, so students can transfer their
credits easily between Asean countries," the Ohec source said.
The TQF evaluates the quality of
programmes and can be used to compare students from different education institutions
in Asean.
It is being developed to prepare
for the formation of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015.
Sasithara Pichaicharnarong,
permanent secretary to the Ministry of Education, said the country had around
16 million people aged three to 21 years, but about 3.2 million of them were
out of the education system.
Including people in other age
groups, there were around 4 million illiterate people in Thailand, Ms Sasithara
said.
"It is our responsibility to
decrease the number of illiterate people before the establishment of the AEC by
encouraging non-formal education," she said.
She said Thailand was ranked
fourth in literacy among Asean countries, below Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei.
Thailand has proposed to host a
meeting among Asean countries this September to determine the basic education
curriculum to be implemented in all 10 association countries.
Ms Sasithara said the basic
curriculum in primary and secondary levels should comprise science, maths,
history, physical education, information and communication technology, moral
education, art and Asean identity.
She said four universities in
Thailand will join the Asean University Network (AUN), established to
strengthen cooperation among 26 leading universities in the region. The four
universities are Chulalongkorn, Mahidol, Burapha and Chiang Mai.
She urged more universities to
join the network as it will be able to easily enable credit transfers among
members.
Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry
announced that the armed forces have prepared plans to ensure a seamless
transition when the AEC is formed.
Defence spokesman Thanathip
Sawangsaeng said personnel will be trained in English language proficiency and
in the languages of the Asean states.
Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt
Na Ranong said the government will meet state agencies next month to discuss
how best to prepare for the AEC.
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