A recent study published by World Population Review ranked Thailand in 107th place globally among 203 countries. The result has drawn strong reactions from Thailand’s Office of the Education Council (OEC), saying that the ranking “did not provide clear facts or show the current situation”.
In a Bangkok Post article, Thailand ranks 7th out of the 9 ASEAN countries in the list. Singapore ranked 11th, Brunei 47th, Indonesia 67th, Vietnam 53rd, Philippines 71st, Malaysia 89th and Laos at the 102 spot. Myanmar and Cambodia were ranked further than Thailand.
The top 3 countries who soared in the rankings were South Korea, Denmark and Netherlands respectively.
The OEC justifies that the said ranking is inconsistent with data from the annual Best Countries Report by US News and World Report, BAV Group and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where Thailand ranked 48th among 73 countries.
The World Population Review did not give any other information related to the ranking, so to say that Thailand was near the bottom would need to be interpreted carefully, said the OEC.
In OEC’s own study, the initial literacy rate was 99% among Thais aged 15 years and older, the highest in ASEAN.