ติด ร. (Pending)

PENDING shows the problems with Thailand’s education system. Rural school students still study using the Basic Education Core Curriculum from 2008, which has been used for over 16 years without changes. An opposition parliament member stands up to speak about the delays in changing to a competency-based curriculum. Politicians and teachers criticize the old system in interviews, while the government promised to change the curriculum by 2024, but by 2025, nothing has happened.

Sujipuli, a private school, shows what could be possible by using competency-based learning. Students learn more freely, showing how the new system could work. The school helps explain what competency means and how it can change teaching from memorizing facts to really understanding. Political problems come up again as politicians and teachers talk about how the previous government stopped the curriculum changes, possibly because of publishing companies’ interests. The Deputy Minister of Education denies this and promises that schools will use the competency-based curriculum in the first term of 2025. But some teachers say they don’t even know what the new curriculum is and haven’t been trained.

Rural schools try to test the new curriculum on their own, but they face problems with staff not being ready and not having enough resources. Teachers complain that the government system doesn’t give them time to improve their skills. Young teachers and politicians say that if this curriculum works, Thai children will become people who think, analyze, and ask questions. Education is not just the job of the government or schools, but everyone in society needs to help make real change happen. Children are still waiting for answers from a system that remains stuck “PENDING” in delays and politics while their future education waits.

Director’s Statement :

Like many others, I have experienced Thailand’s education system firsthand — with its strong focus on memorization, outdated curriculum, standardized tests that don’t truly reflect students’ abilities, and classrooms where students’ voices are rarely heard. These problems are not just personal frustrations; they show deeper structural issues that slow down our country’s development and cause long-term challenges like economic inequality, lack of innovation, and weak civic understanding.

In 2020, Thailand saw a wave of youth-led political movements where students openly questioned their education for the first time in decades. They challenged the curriculum, teaching styles, and power structures in schools. This showed that education is not just a distant topic but something personal and urgent, and that real change is overdue.

What pushed me to make this documentary was noticing a gap in how this issue is discussed publicly. While education problems are often covered in the news or academic talks, there is little cinematic work exploring the national curriculum — the core framework shaping Thai education. Although reform has been promised since 2021, we still use a curriculum introduced in 2008. Plans for a new competency-based curriculum have quietly been delayed, raising questions about transparency and political influence.

This film, “PENDING”, was made during the time when the Ministry of Education promised to launch the new curriculum. It reflects and asks: Will this long-awaited change finally happen? And if not, what is still holding us back?