The latest results of PISA have once again grabbed attention in Thailand after the performance of Thai students hit an unprecedented low over the two decades. Poor performance has persisted for generations and serves as just the visible tip of an iceberg where underlying problems are frozen. Topped with the passed largest allocation to Education Ministry, this raises doubts in society as to why the quality of Thai education continues to tread water.

<p>The student activist group Bad Student staged a protest at the Ministry of Education to call for gender equality and LGBTQ rights in the school system.</p>

<p>A number of students in Thailand have been asked by their teachers to pay respect to the national flag at 8.00 am in front of their televisions at home every day before online classes begin. A teacher was found asking students via Line to send photos of them standing for the anthem as a record. The Ministry of Education said that they did not order this but it should be looked at from different points of view.</p>

<p>The student activist group Bad Student on Friday (2 October) organized a series of protests at various high schools in Bangkok to protest against abuse and mistreatment of students in schools, before going to the Ministry of Education to call for Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan to resign.</p>

<p>The Bad Students group gathered in front of the Ministry of Education to challenge Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan in a debate. In a highly organized protest, the students repeated 3 demands and 1 ultimatum as they called for education reform.</p>

<p>In an aftershock from the 16 August mass protest in Bangkok, over 500 school students have protested against Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan and the prohibition against political expression in many schools.</p>

<p>Three groups of student rights activists have demanded that the Ministry of Education (MOE) abolish haircut regulations and institute more effective procedures against teacher misconduct.</p>

<p>Students have criticized schools&rsquo; haircut rules by holding demonstrations, submitting online petitions and sending out tweets as schools have not changed their rules in line with the Education Ministry&rsquo;s latest policy.</p>

<p>On 18 May, the Ministry of Education launched a large-scale online learning experiment to be put into full use in the upcoming semester, but Thais have questioned the quality of an English course and problems of equal access, as 10% of students nationwide still rely on schools.&nbsp;</p>

<div>Thailand’s Education Ministry has implemented a new regulation that will allow pregnant students to continue their schooling. The Ministry also wants to reform sex education with the aim of reducing Thailand’s teenage pregnancy rate.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>At a press conference on 5 August 2016, Kamchorn Tatiyakawi, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, told the media that the Ministry is training and updating its staff on reforms brought in by the Teenage Pregnancy Act, which was enacted on 31 March this year. </div>

<div> <div> <div>Academics have condemned a school in the Northeastern Province of Khon Kaen for requiring kindergarten children to wear military uniforms, saying that it reinforces authoritarianism. A parent pitied her daughter wearing such uniform despite the hot weather of Thailand. </div></div></div>

<p>A Karen network is urging the authorities to continue a project to restore Karen culture in the educational system after five years without progress.</p> <p>On Wednesday, 23 March 2016, Surapong Kongchantuk, Chairman of the Lawyers Council of Thailand's Human Rights Subcommittee on Ethnic Minorities, reported that 9 leaders of the Karen Network for Culture and the Environment visited the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education to ask for progress in the project to restore the Karen way of life.</p>