Education and Social mobility in Thailand

Samenvatting

An attempt is made to relate R.H. Turner's diadic model of society on a modified triadic model basis (ruler-bureaucratic elite-populace) to social mobility in traditional and modern Thai society. It is hypothesized that achievement oriented sponsored social mobility prevailed from the Chakri reformation (1870) until 1932, followed by attainment oriented sponsored social mobility, and that today social mobility in Thailand depends on the concept of contest mobility. Following the Bowring Treaty in 1855 with Great Britain, Thailand felt tremendous influence from the West, manifested particularly in the educational structure which sponsored advancement through scholastic achievement up to the 'entrenched relatives' level of government. Overthrow of the royal absolutism in 1932 grew out of growing frustration of those achievement- oriented but nonrelated junior civil servants who had been educated abroad through royally sponsored scholarships. After 1932 scholarships to study abroad were given to civil servants who had already been in service and earned approval of superiors. Entrance to civil service positions took on a masked selection process that claimed only academic criteria for acceptance, but in fact were more concerned with the acquisition of an elite value system and propensity for 'bureaucratic professionalism'. Knowledge of the English language is a guaranteed impediment to students coming from poor families unable to finance the hidden costs of a private, English-centered school. In modern Thailand, the status of academic achievement seems to be giving way to a social mobility based on economic gains. The salary of a civil servant nowhere equals that of a businessman. Perhaps the phenomenon of social mobility in Thai society will be based upon pragmatic rather than symbolic status in the future. T. Babitsky..