Are Thailand's Graduates Up to Doing Real Work? by Phairath Khampha 24 August 2001 It seems Thailand's graduates go through school just to be able to take money, through corrupt and dishonest means where possible, and provide little in return to society. Furthermore, the country has no apparent interest in providing proper schooling and a meaningful, profitable post-schooling life that benefits both the graduate and builds a better society. "My God, this could be the only country in the world where people graduate from university right into poverty row!" said a Thai economist with a PhD and a long, distinguished professional record. "Of the entire class that graduated last year [2000], not one got a job. What kind of a country is this?" As alarming as it seems, this is quite logical and predictable from the point of view of Thai education and national economic planning (or lack of it). The way it used to be in Thailand was that young people sat through years of college, tutored themselves with a lot of educational nonsense in class in order to receive a degree certificate accredited by the Ministry of Universities and recognised by the Civil Service Commission. Then, through some back door, and front-end bribery, they hoped to land a life-long civil service job in which they could steal large amounts of wealth and money that should really have gone to better develop the country and its people. They then spend a life-time passing on their misery to the public through their service (or lack of it). Many more hope simply to return to some family business with their gold plating (nearly worthless paper, really) and live happily ever after, subjecting their parents, partners, colleagues, subordinates and customers to the same misery and lack of service. It leads one to ask: "Does Thailand as a nation really expect to survive in the economic world of the 21st century this way?" This brings up the fact of how they tried to silence this esteemed economist each time he mentioned "saleable skills or employable competency". One would hope that whatever the government is doing now to improve Thailand's quality of human resources will give this some consideration.