Announcement of Six Million Dollars Loan for Vocational Education in Thailand on October 12, 1966

181 8 H STREET, N .W., WASHINGTON' . C. 204 3 3 TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 ______________. . . . ______,41_..--1.r,1.------------------------------- Bank Priess Release No. 66/57'- _, Subject: $6 million loan for vocational October 12, 1966 education in Thailand The World Bank has approved a loan equhralent to $6 million to the Kingdom of Thailand to assist in financing a project intended to strengthen and expand vocational education for agriculture and industry. The project -- to be carried out over three years at an estimated total cost of $21 million -- includes the expansion of 14 trades and industries schools, nine vocational agricultural schools, a vocational teacher training college and an·agricultural teacher train- ing center, as well as specialist teachers from abroad. This will be the WorJd Bank's sixteenth loan in Thailand, but its first for ~ an education project in that country. This latest project will help meet the country's needs in skille~ personnel for its expanding industry and for modernizing its agriculture. Apart from the Bank's loan, finance for the project will come from within Thailand. The United States Agency for International Development will provide advisers and teaching specialists for the project on a grant basis. In the field of industrial training the project proposes expansion of land, buildings and equipment for 14 trades and industries schools to pe~it more effec- · tive training in five trades for a total enrollm~nt of about 7,000 students, leading to an output of 2~100 students per year -- 900 per year more than at present. This fncreased output is expected to meet the needs of .industry _for the immediate future without the risk of an unemployable surplus. Of the 14 t,~a<les and industrie.s schools involved·, three will be large schools in the • Bangkok area and one will be located in each of the eleven other· educational regions in Thailand, .thus providing a balanced distribution throughout the country. - 2 - Courses offered by these schools will cover the following trades: auto " mechanics, building and constr1.1etion, machine shop, metal work and electricity • and radio servicing. The operf~ltion of these project schools will require abcut 100 additional technical teachers & year in each of the three years of the project. To meet these needs the project will expand an existing vocational teachers I college in Bangkok it1to a national institution for technical teacher training. For expanded agricultural training, the project will provide additional land, buildings, equipment, livestock and in-service teacher training at nine vocational agricultural schools and at the teacher. training college at Bang ... Pra. The agri- cultural schools oi the project are well distributed. among the regions with dif- ferent natural and social conditions and varying patterns of farming. The new facilities will enable ~xpansion of enrollment from 1,900 to 4,100 which will pro- • vide an output of 1,250 mid-level agriculturalists every year to meet the esti- mated requirements of the public services, private farming and farm service enter~ prises. This section of the project gives special attention to the agricultural teacher training program. In,addition to new land, buildings, equipment and live- stock, the Bang-Pra college will receive the services of five expatriate specialists in teaching crop production, animal production, agricultural engineering, agri·· .cultural economics and extension educat:i.on in agriculture. Thailand's growing educatio,ial syst~~ has been, and promises to continue to be, a major factor in the·country'~ economic progress. At the same time this growth in the econ~y generates an increasing demand for skills in key sectors. The country's rapi~ Jy changing ind us trial sector requires well-qualified workers- able to face a variety of production problems. Because of limited training facilities in industry, employers are turning increasingly to the vocational •  - 3 - ~ 3chools for production workers and also for technicians. In agriculture, voca- tional school graduates are at present needed mainly for Government service in the fields of agricultural extension, research, land settlement and cooperatives. However, economic progress will lead to increasing demands for qualified agri- culturists in private farming and for farmer services. The Government of Thailand intends that this vocational education project shall form part of a national human resources development program coordinated with econa'.?tc and educational planning. To keep the program of its trades and industries school in line with the requirements of industry the Government also intends that the exbt\ing National Vocational Training Committee will it1clude representatives of industry and other private employers and will establish local committees, representative of employers and appropriate Government departments, • to advise on the operation of each school. The Government is to establish ad· visor.y committees on agricultural education on both the national and local levels and to formulate plans for the development of technical services for agriculture. The Bank loan, to be made in various currencies, will be for a term of 30 years and will bear interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum. Repayment of principal will begin November 1, 1976, after a 10-year period of grace • •