Tradition and Change in Southeast Asian Secondary Education : A Brief Survey with Special Reference to the Comprehensive School Project in Thailand

The problems associated with the rapid growth of school enrollment are complex matters in every country. Southeast Asian countries have also been confronted with the same problems since the mid-1950 s. In general, they, at first, tried to solve them through encouraging the vocational education in secondary schools, which were thought to serve not only in producing the semi-skilled workers needed in the process of socio-economic development but also in discouraging general secondary and higher education inflated by the elitist orientation of the students. And they in turn began to introduce the comprehensive school as an integral part of secondary school system when their first goal proved unattainable. This essay is to trace the redefinition process of secondary education in a historical and comparative perspective with special reference to the comprehensive school project in Thailand. Our point is that their original intention might not be realized in a near future even if they apply the comprehensive school system, because modern education, with its secular and utilitarian characteristic, can not have any capacity to play such a role in today\u27s cultural and social environment. The rhetoric prepared for the new system is seemed to lose its way in the actual process in Thai case