IQ of Thai children must be boosted, says minister

BANGKOK, July 21 (TNA) - Thai schools and curricula must be developed to boost the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) levels of Thai children in order to meet the international standard, Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang said here on Thursday.

Mr. Chaturon conceded that the ministry now faces a challenging mission of lifting the IQ levels of the country's younger generation, especially those in schools to meet the recognized standard.

Plans to develop both schools and curricula have been in place, but implementations have been postponed until the new government is formed after the next general election later this year, according to the education minister.

The minister admitted, however, that frequent changes in the education portfolio could affect national education development.

Mr. Chaturon's remarks followed a report at a symposium organized this week by the Ministry of Public Health that Thai children's IQs currently stand at 88 points on average, which are lower than the international standard of 100-110 points.

The report said the problem appears to have caused by an imbalanced development between the children's physical and intelligence strength by concerned parties, particularly parents who have paid more attention on their children's physical healthy than their IQ standard.

TNA

I thought that people were born with a certain IQ. I didn't realise that it could be nurtured :?