The problems with reforming education may lie less in a lack of research, funding or expertise than in a failure to get evidence into policy and the classroom, the Equitable Education Fund (EEF) says.
Bridging those gaps was the purpose of the Thailand Education Research Association (Thera), launched recently during the Thailand International Conference on Education Research 2026 in Bangkok.
The association was co-founded by the EEF, the Office of the Education Council and academics from leading Thai universities, with its secretariat housed at the EEF.
It is a national platform on which researchers, policymakers, universities and funding agencies can coordinate their work, align research with national priorities and turn evidence into policy and classroom practice.
‘Thailand has no shortage of education research,’ said Sahawarat Polahan director of the Equitable Education Research Institute at the EEF.
‘What it lacks is a system that connects research to the people who need it most, while also connecting Thai researchers to the world.’
Education research in Thailand has often taken place in separate institutional and disciplinary silos. University studies may not reach policymakers, and policy decisions do not always draw on the best available evidence.
Thai researchers have also had limited access to international networks, comparative data and global debate about which education policies work and which do not.
As a result, the country invests heavily in education without fully harnessing its research to drive reform, Mr Sahawarat said.
Thera also opens a pathway for Thailand to join the World Education Research Association (Wera), a global network representing more than 700,000 researchers in over 40 countries. Membership would give Thai researchers greater access to international networks, comparative studies and global policy discussions.
Wera president Joe O’Hara and former president Mustafa Yunus Eryaman took part in the launch event.
Mr Sahawarat said stronger connections were becoming more urgent as artificial intelligence reshapes labour markets, demographic change leaves some areas with empty classrooms and others overcrowded, and the skills students will need remain hard to predict.
‘Education systems that cannot translate research into timely and scalable action will fall behind – not gradually, but rapidly,’ he said.
‘Thailand cannot build a resilient education system without a resilient research ecosystem to support it,’ he said. ‘And it cannot build that ecosystem in isolation from the world.’