HIGHER EDUCATION AND SOCIAL CLASS FORMATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA : THE ROLE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION(Text of Presentation Via Satellite from Thailand,First Main Session "Higher Education & Class Formation in SE Asia",AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM THE IMPACT OF HIGHER EDUCATION ON SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN ASIA & THE PACIFIC)

Education has been considered a major means of upgrading social class in many Southeast Asian countries for hundreds of years evolving from home to the temples, the palace, Pundits\u27 quarters, and finally to schools for basic education. Higher education plays a more important role in upgrading the quality of manpower for national development and consequently the quality of life. Only those with higher education in some form have access to the forefront of their professions and careers. Thus, higher education is a means to upgrade social class, mostly to the middle class, in terms of social honors, financial status, and power. Higher education may not always bring someone up to the first class in terms of financial status and power, but he is well-regarded and respected as having a socially high status. Distance education is a viable means to help upgrade a great number of people for higher positions in their work, enhance the quality of their professions and careers, and consequently improve the quality of their life. In the information age, with the advancement of information and communication technologies, future students of higher education institutions will have more access to knowledge and information in their homes. Home will be the venue of learning and classroom time will be utilized for more interactive sessions such as seminars, discussion, for development of attitudes and values and for practical work. The so-called "integrated mode" of distance education, i.e. the face-to face mode integrated with the distance mode, will be the future vision of educational systems. It is a great honor for me to be invited to share my views via satellite from Thailand on "Higher Education and Social Class Formation in Southeast Asia." This satellite symposium is certainly an innovative movement of cooperation in higher education in Asia and the Pacific, thanks to the initiatives and efforts of the National Institute for Multimedia Education