Expert:Dr. Phattharamanat Sritrakul
Role:Lecturerof Educational Administration Program, Faculty of Education, Chiang Mai University.
Impact: Dr. Phattharamanat Sritrakul is a distinguished alumna of East China Normal University (Ed.D. in Comparative Education) and Beijing Normal University (M.Ed. in Comparative Education).With expertise in Comparative Education, Teacher Education, Educational Administration, and Alternative Education Systems, Dr. Sritrakul was a participant in the UNESCO-TEC's Belt and Road Exchange Project.She is actively engaged in fostering long-term research collaborations between Thai and Chinese educational institutions, aiming to create continuous professional development opportunities for Thai educators and contribute to elevating student achievement.
Editor's Note
In an era defined by rapid technological advancements and evolving societal needs, education systems worldwide are grappling with the integration of artificial intelligence and the imperative for adaptive management strategies. The recent China-Thailand Principals Forum served as aplatform for international collaboration to address these global challenges.（TEC Held the 2026 China-Thailand Principals Forum）After this forum, Dr. Phattharamanat Sritrakul shared her perspectives on the challenges and trends in AI integration within Thai education and outlined proactive management initiatives for long-term development.
Question 1.Have Thai schools encountered any challenges when applying AI to daily management tasks (such as class scheduling, teacher evaluations, student behavior analysis, and campus safety)? What are the main challenges encountered?
In 2025, the Ministry of Education's AI policy focuses on transforming Thai education through the leveraging of AI as a teaching tool and the reduction of teachers' workload, under the concept of "AI for Education" and "AI Literacy." The policy aims to build digital skills, strengthen the ethical use of technology, and reduce educational inequality. It involves the development of instructional manuals and learning platforms in collaboration with partners, with the goal of equipping Thai people with the competencies needed for the future.
Thai schools have made meaningful progress in exploring AI for daily management tasks; however, effective integration remains challenging. The obstacles reflect a set of systemic, human, and policy-level gaps. Infrastructure inequity between urban and provincial schools, fragmented data systems, unresolved AI ethical compliance concerns, and limited AI literacy among administrators and teachers all combine to slow adoption. Thailand has not yet succeeded in developing learning platforms that serve both urban and rural contexts equitably.
Furthermore, the successful adoption of AI in Thai school management requires coherent national policy guidance from OBEC and the Ministry of Education, equitable investment in digital infrastructure across all regions, robust and practical training programs for school leaders and teachers, and the development of AI tools genuinely designed for the Thai educational context. Critically, training programs for principals and teachers in Thailand have focused predominantly on how to use AI tools, rather than on how to apply them effectively in practice. As a result, Thailand faces a significant challenge in developing the critical thinking skills necessary for meaningful AI integration in educational settings.
Question 2. What trends and changes do you foresee in school management within Thai or international education sectors? What management initiatives and adjustments will schools implement to proactively adapt to these changes and thereby promote their long-term development?
The world in the 21st century is driven by human capital and technology, yet technology cannot advance without sufficiently capable human capital. Thailand’s education crisis — reflected through inequality, backwardness, and inadequacy — directly impacts the quality of Thai people in at least two ways: 1) a lack of the knowledge and competencies needed to navigate the set of opportunities and challenges of the 21st century, and 2) unequal access to educational opportunity, which serves as the prologue to widening gaps of inequality across multiple dimensions, leading in turn to crises in the social, political, and economic spheres, as well as growing subjugation to foreign influence. These various conditions may ultimately lead to a national crisis in the future.
Thailand’s standing in major global education indices remains frankly in the lower-middle tier. In the most recent PISA 2022 assessment, Thailand scored below the OECD average across all three domains — reading, mathematics, and science — and trailed significantly behind ASEAN peers such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Notably, Vietnam’s per capita GDP is lower than Thailand’s, yet its educational achievement is considerably higher, indicating that Thailand’s challenges are not merely a matter of resource allocation. In the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, Thailand has shown some progress but continues to lag in teaching quality, curriculum alignment with labor market demands, and students’ digital skills. Additionally, the EF English Proficiency Index consistently places Thailand in the “Low Proficiency” category, posing a significant barrier to regional competitiveness.
1. Trends in Thai Educational Change
Thailand’s educational landscape is undergoing significant transformation across several interconnected fronts. To begin with, higher education institutions are increasingly adapting by emphasizing short-term certified programs under the framework of Non-degree Education and Micro-credentials, designed to meet the growing demands of Lifelong Learning. Closely related to this shift is the rise of Active Learning, which moves away from rote memorization and instead prioritizes analytical thinking, hands-on practice, and innovation-building. Furthermore, Hybrid Learning and Digital Transformation have redefined instructional norms, as blended online-offline teaching has now become the new standard. In addition to these pedagogical shifts, the Zero Dropout Policy has emerged as a key equity-driven initiative, aiming to bring out-of-school children back into education or into vocational skills training. Ultimately, these trends reflect a broader recognition that learning is no longer confined to the classroom but must focus on skills that are practically applicable in both society and the workplace.
2. Response Strategies
In response to these systemic challenges, schools must formulate strategies within a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity)environment, balancing both resilience and adaptability. Effective school strategy operates across three levels: Positioning Strategy, which defines a school’s unique value proposition; System Strategy, which builds interconnected internal systems for teacher development, student support, and assessment; and Culture Strategy, which sustains both through organizational culture that outlasts any individual leader. Six specific strategies are proposed: maintaining Strategic Focus rather than spreading efforts too thin; building a Teacher Leadership Pipeline to distribute leadership capacity; encouraging Micro-Innovation within existing OBEC frameworks; establishing an Evidence Loop for timely data-driven instructional adjustments; fostering Network Leadership through collaboration rather than competition; and cultivating Futures Literacy by regularly engaging the school community in scenario planning to prepare the organization for an uncertain future.
Editor: HAN Baiqing
