Thailand is a country that has experienced great economic growth in the past few years fueled by cheap labor industries. With the Asian crisis, that growth has slowed down quite dramatically, and some say it is the result of the country's lack of educated workers.

It is no question that much of Africa is still under development, and education is one of its biggest hurdles towards economic growth. Although the percentage of children in school has risen from 25% in 1960 to over 60% now, the number of children not in school is still continuously rising.

The two journals from The Economist both agreed that education is the first step towards development and economic growth. Both the World Bank and the IMF has demanded an increase in education spending as part of its relief effort to some of these developing countries. It is up to the co

In the article "South-East Asia's learning difficulties" published by The Economist on August 16, 1997. It defined the problem facing Thailand at that time. Thailand has been successful during the 1990's with economic growth provided by its cheap labor. These labor-intensive industries are responsible for producing clothes, shoes and other goods for exporting to the West. As the Asian crisis sets in, the government began to realize the problem facing the country, the lack of qualified workers. Over the year, the country has been concentrating on its labor-intensive industries but failing to address the need of skilled workers by these industries. In fact all these years Thailand has only experienced economic growth, but not development.

"No school, no future", The Economist, 27 March 1999.

It is all about central planning, there has been complaints made by teacher on the country's education system. Which has always been centralized and resistant to change, in Thailand alone, there are eight central government ministries that have a role on education. So proposed changes to the education system is very unlikely to pass. This is also the case in Indonesia, where the emphasis on using the Indonesian language has put its graduates at a disadvantage comparing to other graduates from Asia who speak better English. Which is another reason why parents send their children overseas.

Education and development has always been a two-way relationship, on the one hand growing economies can and do devote increasing resources to improvement of education and health. But it is also apparent that investment in human resources helps to accelerate economic growth. As more and more people understand the role of educati

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