More than 3,000 of 38,000 state schools nationwide will have to cut their class hours by two hours a day next term in response to the Education Ministry's "Teach Less, Learn More" pilot scheme, amid doubts about whether many schools are ready.
The term starts in the last week of this month. The initiative was introduced by new Education Minister Gen Dapong Ratanasuwan, the 17th education minister in the past 14 years.
He claimed classroom hours for Thai students are among the highest in the world. Primary school pupils sit in classes for 1,000 hours a year, and secondary students 1,200 hours a year, compared to 800 class hours a year in most developed countries.
According to the Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec), academic class hours under the new plan will be cut from 30-35 hours a week to 22 hours a week for elementary schools and from 35 hours to 27 hours for secondary schools.
Classes will finish at 2pm every day, two hours earlier on the present finishing time, allowing students to use the remaining two hours in school to do extra-curricular activities of their choice.
Under the pilot scheme, extra-curricular activities will be divided into three categories: encouraging learning capability, cultivating attributes and good values, and enhancing working and living skills.
Each category contains 13 activities such as communication and thinking development, vocational training, use of technology and upholding the values of the nation, religion and the monarchy.
"Thai students are spending too much time in classroom, they need more free time to learn skills which prepare them for life. Schools need to teach less to let students learn more. I believe when students are happier they'll eventually get better grades," Gen Dapong said.
Gen Dapong insisted his idea is not a call for teachers to do less, but a call for educators to teach better.
On the face of it, it seems like a perfect idea to free up students to try new activities and confine them less to their desks.
However, many school heads and academics are wondering if it will really work out like that. They say schools have been given just a month to prepare, which is not long enough.
Amnuay Puttamee, director of Phyathai School, one of the schools in Obec's pilot scheme, said no guidelines have arrived from Obec, even though the new term starts in less than a month.
"We received an invitation from Obec to attend a policy briefing on Oct 13-14, meaning we will have just two weeks to prepare everything," Mr Amnuay said.
A lack of teachers and supplies for extra-curricular activities are possible problems.
He is also afraid that cutting class-time would lower his students' scores in the Ordinary National Education Test (Onet).
Similarly, Thantip Kaewliam, director of Galyani Vadhana Chaloem Phra Kiat school in Chiang Mai, said time is too short to organise everything required. Many school heads in her area still do not understand the concept behind the scheme.
Ms Thantip said she and her staff will attend workshops organised by Obec in the middle of this month. However, she has already prepared 6-7 elective classes for students herself. "Our term starts on Oct 26. We cannot wait for the workshop, so we have prepared ourselves the best we could," she said.
Sompong Jitradab, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Education, said consistency is a big problem in the education system as the rules change every semester. New guidelines are handed down to teachers on course content, lesson plans and testing.
"With every change of the education minister comes a change in policy direction," he said.
Mr Sompong said Obec may need at least 8-9 months to prepare schools for the policy of introducing electives after class hours, which will include changes to the curriculum and assessment system to support it.
Firstly, he said teachers need to be trained in the concept of "Teach Less, Learn More", which is to produce a generation of youngsters who can meet future needs through independent thinking and the ability to solve problems on their own.
Secondly, Obec needs to change the thinking behind its assessment system because if children are still being pressured to do well in exams, nothing will change, he said.
Lastly, in his view, academic class hours should be cut from 1,000 hours to 600-850 hours a year for primary schools and from 1,200 hours to 880 hours a year for secondary schools.
"If students have less time in classrooms while they still have to study the same content and have to be assessed under the Onet, their academic performance might worsen and finally they may have to spend more money on cramming schools and tutoring," Mr Sompong said.
Prapapat Niyom, educator and founder of Bangkok's Roong Aroon School, said if the ministry wants to cut class hours, it needs to change assessment as the first priority.
Instead of exams, she recommended alternative assessments that allow more open-ended responses and testing students over a period of time to judge their holistic development.
"Cutting class hours alone will not change the quality of Thai education, because rote learning, an authoritarian school culture and frequent policy changes are also problems which the Thai education system has to address,"Ms Prapapat said.