Education and Economic Development during the Modernization Period:

A Comparison between Thailand and Japan

Abstract

This paper tries to explain the difference in economic development between the reign of King Rama V (1868-1910) and that of the Emperor Meiji (1868-1912) in terms of the difference in the state of education. Before being forced to open the country by Western powers, the overwhelming majority of native Thais were farmers growing rice using traditional method mainly for internal consumption. Most Thai commoners received no education, but those who did, received theirs from the monks who were more interested in teaching morality than reading and writing skills. The situation was a contrast to Japan where the samurai received education from government schools, whereas many commoners did from private schools. The exchange economy of Japan was more advanced due to the emergence of big cities. Both countries sought modernization as a means to protect themselves from being colonized by Western powers. The new Japanese leaders made serious efforts in establishing a formal education system by first emphasizing basic education for the mass and later developing secondary and tertiary education because they felt that skilled and professional manpower was indispensable for national development and industrialization. The Thai leaders faced a more pressing problem of centralizing political power for security reason than developing educational system. As a consequence, the Japanese economy reached the take-off stage within the Meiji era whereas Thailand, although it progressed from self sufficient to a market economy, continued to depend heavily on rice production.