A Study On The Educational Reform Of King Chulalongkorn

The West colonists came to Thailand and resulted in the far-reaching influences on the politics, economy, society and culture since the mid-19 th century. In face of the increasing military threat and culture penetration from external western powers, and the internal backward economic, political and cultural systems, King Chulalongkorn adapted positive attitudes to carry out the internal comprehensive reform. Education reform was one important part of his various reformations, which lasted the longest period(since 1871 to 1910).Through decades of King Chulalongkorn’s efforts, Education in Thailand was becoming more and more standardized and institutionalized, and education system is approaching perfection day by day. In terms of the number of schools and students, it had achieved a big breakthrough. The traditional Monastery education had turned into the western education model. A large number of students who ever studied broad came back to Thailand and participated in these reforms. In terms of the actual effect of education reform, King Chulalongkorn safeguarded state sovereignty and territorial integrity, and maintained the centralization system. Besides, it improved national harmony and unity. Furthermore, it brought great impacts to the social mobility, literature transformation, democracy and constitutionalism. King Chulalongkorn’s reform achieved a great success, however there still existed some problems, such as low education found, imbalance of regional development and conservative thought. I hope that through studying its success and deficiency, it would help us comprehensively understand the significance of King Chulalongkorn’s education reform during the process of Thailand’s modernization, and wish to provide some references and stimulate further thinking for our education development and reform.