Haves and have nots in Thailand

But they do not make the mistake the Afrikaners made, of trying to systematise and codify repression тАФ or even to justify it. They will shake their heads sadly and remark that, unfortunately, the peasants (salt of the earth, of course) are not up to things like government, or management, or flying aeroplanes or running big business. Indeed, education itself is wasted on most of them.

No law stops you rising as a peasant: only the softly suffocating disregard that those with power will feel toward you. So much less public money has been spent on your education; and few would take you seriously even if you did try hard at school.No prizes for guessing the country he's writing about.

[LoveThailand]

Public spending on education, total (% of government expenditure), Thailand
2010 - 16.1
2011 - 24.0
2012 - 31.5

[fountainhall]

The increase was probably accounted for by the one tablet per child policy, a programme that certainly had far more downs than ups when introduced. ;)

[cdnmatt]

Sorry, but I have a very hard time believing Thailand is putting 31.5% of their GDP into education. Source?

I have yet to visit a mom & pop shop where they don't use a calculator. When I tell them the change owed before they've figured it out on their calculator, they're amazed at how smart I am. It's a joke. This includes the kids of parents. There's say 20yos helping out the family, and they're still using the calculator method too. They should be able to do 1000 - 644 = 356 in their head, for example.

[francois]

I have yet to visit a mom & pop shop where they don't use a calculator.

Perhaps they should use an abacus? Is there anywhere in North America that stores/shops don't rely on a calculating device to determine the change ? People make mistakes but calculators don't.

[Daniel-old]

According to the World Bank, in 2012, Thailand put 31.5% of government expenditure into education. As a percentage of GDP this was only 7.6%

Sources: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE. ... /countries (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GB.ZS/countries)

[Up2U]

Sorry, but I have a very hard time believing Thailand is putting 31.5% of their GDP into education. Source?

I have yet to visit a mom & pop shop where they don't use a calculator. When I tell them the change owed before they've figured it out on their calculator, they're amazed at how smart I am. It's a joke. This includes the kids of parents. There's say 20yos helping out the family, and they're still using the calculator method too. They should be able to do 1000 - 644 = 356 in their head, for example.
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE. ... /countries (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GB.ZS/countries)

I was surprised to even throwing in an additional 30% for graft, corruption, kickbacks, etc.

Every grammar school kid, when I went to school, learned how to count money and make change. Didn't have calculators in those days.

[lego]

No law stops you rising as a peasant: only the softly suffocating disregard that those with power will feel toward you. So much less public money has been spent on your education; and few would take you seriously even if you did try hard at school.No prizes for guessing the country he's writing about.
Way over the top. Yes, public education is abysmal and that ensures that the majority of the unprivileged remain uneducated for life. But no, those who try hard do have a good chance at success. If they aren't taken seriously at one place due to their background alone, they even have the luxury to take their talents elsewhere. I know many success stories of this kind first-hand, children of uneducated and impoverished farmers doing really well for themselves in a profession they've chosen and mastered. The real problem is that so many don't even try, because they're actively being discouraged by either economic necessities or by their peers (usually a mix of both). Those who try really hard can and will basically make it anywhere. That's why I think that the "you can study as hard as you want to, they simply won't give you the job because they hate all of you" hyperbole is, for the most part, nonsense.

[goji]

Sorry, but I have a very hard time believing Thailand is putting 31.5% of their GDP into education. Source?.

No one said Thailand is putting 31% of GDP into education.

What was said is that 31% of GOVERNMENT expenditure is going into education. That is different.

GDP is usually Gross Domestic Product, which is total Government + Private Sector expenditure, ie a measure of the size of the entire economy.

I have no idea if the figure is correct.
What I do know is when governments throw taxpayers money at a problem, they do not necessarily get an improvement. That's because politicians frequently lack management skill.

Way over the top. Yes, public education is abysmal and that ensures that the majority of the unprivileged remain uneducated for life. But no, those who try hard do have a good chance at success.... I know many success stories of this kind first-hand, children of uneducated and impoverished farmers doing really well for themselves in a profession they've chosen and mastered.Let's "unpack" lego's panglossian view.

* Where's the most likely place where "those who try hard do have a good chance at success"? A big city. There's only one big city in Thailand - Bangkok. Where does lego live? Bangkok
* What's the most likely business environment where people will succeed on merit and effort, not background? A Western one. Where does lego work? In a Western company. And by the way he's worked there for only a few years
* How many people do most of us know, in the sense that we know their background, the circumstances of their birth and upbringing? You can answer that question for yourself, you don't need me to point it out
* What does "many" mean? Tens? Hundreds? How many people do you know in total?
* Finally, what sort of person stands out from the crowd? It's the exception, isn't it? So if lego knows "many success stories of this kind first-hand" it's because they stand out from the masses who haven't achieved what those individuals have

lego's statement is simply an example of that well-known phenomenon the exception that proves the rule (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rule). It has a corollary which statisticians call confirmation bias (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias)

Conclusion: over-blown hyperbole

[LoveThailand]

With graft and all I just thought the numbers are getting bigger - so perhaps an indication of some improvements.

With graft and all I just thought the numbers are getting bigger - so perhaps an indication of some improvements.On whom? If money is spent on schooling for middle-class children in Bangkok (a growing demographic) that will show up as a bigger number, while schooling for the urban and rural poor remains a constant number. Raw numbers are, by themselves, meaningless.

[Patanawet]

I have yet to visit a mom & pop shop where they don't use a calculator.
I was brought up using an abacus, then slide rule, then log tables -- then I built my first Sinclair calculator and now today use the onscreen calculator for even simple calculations ----- laziness?, probably but who cares?
What we should be caring about is that whatever the percentage of government spending on education is in Thailand -- it is being mis-spent!
We should move with the times. Just be grateful that they can count out the change correctly.
PS I was always amazed years ago, back in England, how the usually poorly educated punters in the betting shops could instantly mentally calculate complicated odds.
Same with the complicated combinations involved in playing darts.

[latintopxxx]

a company I'm familiar with recently rearranged its operatations in SE Asia which involved the transfer of half a dozen senior Thai executives and their families from BKK to Singapore. Not a single child was able to be accepted into the equivalent year/age bracket. After undergoing testing all had to drop at least by a year some were even denied placement at their preferred school. And these are the educated BKK classes!!!???!!! No wonder the masses have no chance and explains why selling ones body is so prevalent :)

Not a single child was able to be accepted into the equivalent year/age bracket.It's why the elite often send their kids abroad to secondary school as a matter of course.

[fountainhall]

Just be grateful that they can count out the change correctly.
An awful lot of Thais, though, are quite unable to count the change they hand over to a cashier! I have lost track of the number of times I am in a line at a supermarket, the cashier rings up the total and some lady - it's usually ladies! - decides to get rid of some of her loose change. So many times this involves various checks and rechecks, to be followed by another dive into the purse for a yet another coin because she got the amount wrong! And the purse itself never comes out of her bag in preparation for the total. They always wait till they have the total first and so everyone's time is wasted!

An awful lot of Thais, though, are quite unable to count the change they hand over to a cashier! I have lost track of the number of times I am in a line at a supermarket, the cashier rings up the total and some lady - it's usually ladies! - decides to get rid of some of her loose change. So many times this involves various checks and rechecks, to be followed by another dive into the purse for a yet another coin because she got the amount wrong! And the purse itself never comes out of her bag in preparation for the total. They always wait till they have the total first and so everyone's time is wasted!You think this is solely a Thai characteristic? Fortunately I don't need to go to the supermarket, but on the odd occasion I pop into a shop (to replenish my supply of condoms, for example) there's inevitably someone there who behaves pretty much as you describe while I'm waiting to transact.