section_path: Demographics/Education
section_name: Education
paragraph_text: Education
  
  In 1995, as minister of education, Sukavich Rangsitpollaid out his plans for educational reform in Thailand. The goal of education reform is to realize the potential of Thai people to develop themselves for the better quality of life and to develop the nation for peaceful co-existence in the world community. The reform was considered a landmark movement after nearly 100 years of education under the previous system.
  
  Thailand's youth literacy rate was 98.1% in 2015. Education is provided by a well-organised school system of kindergartens, primary, lower secondary and upper secondary schools, numerous vocational colleges, and universities. Education is compulsory up to and including age 14, while the government is mandated to provide free education through to age 17. The establishment of reliable and coherent curricula for its primary and secondary schools is subject to rapid changes. Issues concerning university entrance has been in constant upheaval for a number of years. The country is also one of the few that still mandates uniform up to the university years, which is still a subject of ongoing debate.
  
  In 2013, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology announced that 27,231 schools would receive classroom-level access to high-speed internet. However, the country's educational infrastructure was still underprepared for online teaching, as smaller and more remote schools were particularly hindered by COVID-19 restrictions.
  
  The number of higher education institutions in Thailand has grown over the past decades to 156 officially. The two top-ranking universities in Thailand are Chulalongkorn University and Mahidol University. Thai universities' research output is still relatively low, even though the country's journal publications increased by 20% between 2011 and 2016. Recent initiatives, such as the National Research University and Graduate research intensive university: VISTEC, are designed to strengthen Thailand's national research universities.
  
  The private sector of education is well developed and significantly contributes to the overall provision of education. Thailand has the second highest number of English-medium private international schools in Southeast Asian Nations. Cram schools are especially popular for university entrance exams.
  
  Students in ethnic minority areas score consistently lower in standardised national and international tests. This is likely due to unequal allocation of educational resources, weak teacher training, poverty, and low Thai language skill, the language of the tests. As of 2020, Thailand was ranked 89th out of 100 countries globally for English proficiency.
  
  Thailand is the third most popular study destination in ASEAN. The number of international degree students in Thailand increased by 9.7 times between 1999 and 2012, from 1,882 to 20,309 students. Most of international students come from neighbor countries like China, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.