Thailand’s Path to Literacy

Abstract

In 1932, during the reign of the King Rama VII, the Kingdom of Thailand, which until then had been an absolute monarchy, changed into a constitutional monarchy with a peaceful revolution led by high-ranking military officers and civil servants, all of them commoners. After the revolution King Rama VII abdicated. The Revolutionary Party proclaimed the so-called Six Principles as guidelines for national development, one of which stated, ‘‘Education shall be provided fully for the people’’. According to the first national census conducted by the Ministry of Interior in 1937, out of the population of 14,464,105 there were 6,888,548 illiterate people, accounting for 47.63% of the total population. The new government saw the eradication of illiteracy as an urgent priority and an essential prerequisite for enabling the people of Thailand to become active democratic citizens. In 1940 the government declared that citizens had the duty to learn to read and write the Thai language and to assist others in becoming literate. From then on adult education played a vital role in eradicating illiteracy. As part of this effort, the Adult Education Division, attached to the Office of the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, was established on 6 August, 1940 to further mass literacy as its main goal. A literacy campaign was then launched during the years 1940–1947, as the first systematic attempt of the government to tackle the illiteracy problem. The target clients were mostly adults. In this period, basic literacy was defined as the ability to read and write simple Thai sentences in adult language, as well as to understand the essential duties of the citizen in a