The global voice for consumers La voix des Consommateurs à travers le monde La voz global para la defensa de los consumidores

Country Report for Thailand for CI Regional Meeting on A2K Suwanna Jitprapas Foundation for Consumers, Committee Member 19 February 2009

Summary of issues of concern to consumers in Thailand Background information about Thailand’s education system 9-year compulsory education (Level 1–9) 99% of school-aged children are attending school 12 years of free education which will be expanded to 15 years under the current government policy Source: Ministry of Education

Summary of issues of concern to consumers in Thailand Ratio of number of students per class (as of the year 2007) LevelNumber of students/class Pre-school20 Primary22 Secondary35 High school34 Ministry of Education/

Summary of issues of concern to consumers in Thailand Cost and availability of learning materials Textbooks are published by both government agency (Kurusapa Business Organization) and private sector. Textbooks published by KBO are price-controlled while those by private publishers are not. Only the content of the textbooks published by private publishers is reviewed by the Ministry of Education. Generally, the price of the textbooks by private publishers is higher. (source: The Office of Basic Education Commission

Summary of issues of concern to consumers in Thailand SubjectPrice of textbooks (baht) By private publishersBy government publisher Math34 – 36 (1 US$)52 (1.4 US$) Science17 – 85 (0.5 US$)35 (1US$) Social studies26 – 127 (0.75US$) 127 (10.8US$) 2009 Textbook prices, Ministry of Education

Summary of issues of concern to consumers in Thailand Restrictions on copying for personal use Under the Copyright Act, the following situations are not deemed an infringement of copyright: (1) research or study of the work which is not for commercial purposes; (2) use for personal benefit or for the benefit of the user and his family members or close relatives; (3) comment, criticism or introduction of the work with an acknowledgment of the ownership of copyright in such work;

Summary of issues of concern to consumers in Thailand Availability of local educational materials School teachers as well as university professors are encouraged to write their own textbooks. Benefits in terms of salary and academic titles are offered.

Thailand’s intellectual property regime Thailand has signed the Berne Convention, the TRIPS Agreement and WIPO Copyright Treaty Some provisions of the Thai Copyright Act are stricter than these three international laws, for example: it prohibits teachers from reproducing the whole of a copyrighted work for distribution to students (even though it is not done for commercial purposes). It also limits the quotations from copyrighted materials to be “reasonable” and “in part” only (cannot copy the whole work)

Thailand’s intellectual property regime Bilateral trade agreements on IP under negotiation Negotiations with the US on a FTA on-going since 2004 EU-ASEAN Treaty on Intellectual Property in on- going negotiation

Thailand’s intellectual property regime Thailand is on the US 301 Watch List301 Watch List Current Prime Minister is drafting a regulation calling for greater IP enforcement

Thailand’s intellectual property regime Awareness of IP alternatives such as open source The government has encouraged software interoperability and open standards through the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (NECTEC)

Thailand’s intellectual property regime Recently, NECTEC has joined with five local computer makers to install open-source software suites in the personal computers they produce. These are: – SVOA – D Com – Synnex (Thailand) – IT Bakery – Powell Computer

Other communications rights in Thailand Privacy and data protection laws Computer Crime Act B.E.2550 (2007) No illegal accessing of computer systems or databases Computer data security Electronic eavesdropping

Other communications rights in Thailand Blogs or are monitored for content that is seen as sexually explicit and violence websites. Ministry of Information and Communication Technology is charged with monitoring the Internet.

Access to the Internet in Thailand Penetration of broadband, fixed-line and mobile Internet services Currently, there are 4.25million registered internet users in Thailand. There will be 6.68 million registered internet users in Thailand by (about the same number as registered telephone users) Penetration rate is 6.41% in 2008, expected to be 10% in (Statistics from The National Telecommunications Commission)

Conclusions FFC has carried out extensive research and campaign in areas of access to medicine and intellectual properties. For the A2K issues, we have done research with CI in FFC is assisting CI in doing a research on Access to Knowledge Watch List to be completed in April 2009

Since free education is a truely basic human rights, we would like to push forward an A2K issues to enhance learning opportunities to the public. In conclusion, FFC will continue to support studies with CI and to learn from other countries’ experiences in this project