Introduction
The invention of the modern computer and the Internet has truly made the world a smaller place. Every day, millions of data are being exchanged worldwide to fill up the needs of the earth’s entire populace. Most of the data being sent and received are packets of intangible knowledge and information that should be filtered, refined and maximized for the welfare of the entire modern civilization. Every sector in the economy, whether agriculture, industrial or services benefits from the lifeblood of the Information Age—knowledge.
If knowledge is transferred haphazardly, economic catastrophe could strike any time that would endanger the lives and livelihood not only of the developed countries, but also of the developing ones. Without the discipline and wisdom inculcated into the sophisticated minds and lifestyle of the present era through education the mentioned calamity is inevitable. For the developed and developing countries to start, to maintain and to continue thriving economically in the Information Age, they should put premium on education. Therefore the writer believes that Thailand, a middle-income economy striving towards becoming a developed nation, should prioritize more on effective, timely and up-to-date academic education than on the industrial skills of its populace.
Development of economics
Through effective and updated education, humans can acquire the necessary skills needed to beef up the economy. Nowadays, aside from technical knowledge on the Internet, people all around the world should learn how to communicate with people of other nationalities. The geographical division is slowly breaking down because of the emergence of information technology. Aside from learning language skills, cultural literacy and adaptability should also be learned by every nation in order to communicate with someone online.
Being a country that was not colonized by foreigners Thais can have a problem regarding this. Though Thailand’s educational system is one of the best in Southeast Asia, it still fails to teach their students the important skills in cross-cultural affairs. It is true that they are already implementing and still devising ways to improve English language education in their curriculum, but their isolation from foreign colonizers in the makes them repulsive to embracing culture that is strange to them.
While different countries in Asia, Europe, and Latin America acknowledge English as the international language and are striving hard to include both the language and the culture of English speaking countries (US and UK), Thais great respect for their own culture cripple them to ride with the digital information superhighway. This is mainly reflected in the poor results that Thais got from examinations on English proficiency. Though the government provides ample funding on the education of its constituents, their strong and unbreakable adherence to their own traditions and heritage make them alienated from this era of free exchange in culture and language.
Some may say the issue on education can be compensated by building a pool of workforce equipped with industrial skills to improve its exports in agriculture and manufacturing. According to the World Bank, Thailand is the largest rice producing country in the world. Because of its great tropical climate and rich arable land, Thais are blessed with a country conducive to agriculture. Yet, despite most of Thais embrace agriculture as their livelihood, 80 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) comes from industry. Its economy relies mostly on export of raw and manufactured products.
Products like tin, textiles, fish products, rice, tapioca, jewelry, electrical appliances, furniture, plastics, and integrated circuits are done mainly by industrial workers. They can further increase the production of these goods by putting most of their manpower on industrial setting. Increasing the production of materials of latest technologies in agriculture that are being produced by Thailand’s industrial workforce could help farmers yield more crops. With these, Thais can bolster their agricultural and manufacturing production by beefing up its economy.
Developing the economy of a certain country is a very challenging task. A shrewd economist should consider the tradeoffs that he has to face whenever he makes a decision. In case of the issues above, we can say that the two arguments are logical and should be considered. But in every decision, the person making it should see to it that his decision should produce the optimal benefit at a minimal cost. While it is true that increasing manpower in the industrial setup could improve not only agriculture but also the manufacturing sector, the Information Age requires people who can interact with other nations well.
Thailand’s economy is heavily dependent on exports. To close business transactions with buyers abroad, they should communicate with them clearly and effectively. Aside from language, Thais should also adapt to the culture of the ones they are dealing with. Without appropriate knowledge and education on the cultural adaptation as well as language fluency, they are prone to place themselves and their economy in a very risky position. They may fill their factories with thousands or millions of industry-skilled people, but without clear and open communication with their customers abroad they will have problems in sustaining the growth of their already booming economy.
Conclusion
Knowledge and skills are powers that are very needed in the Information Age. Though a country gifted with natural resources, such as Thailand, can supply food on its own, the fact still remains that the world is now interconnected by the Internet. There is no use if a country has great production capacity if no one demands its products because the people in here do not want to interact with foreigners. Thus educating people with appropriate skill and knowledge, such as language and culture literacy is very important especially in the case of Thailand where its economy is heavily reliant on exports.
What the Thai government could do is to intensify its campaign on opening its doors in accepting the cultures of different nationalities. They should find a way to encourage Thais to acknowledge and adapt to a new culture that will spur their economic growth without destroying their own. The Japanese, Koreans, Chinese and other predominantly Buddhist nations had successfully done this without becoming rebels to their own faith.