Ideas in place to reverse decline in Thai education

[webfact]

Ideas in place to reverse decline in Thai education

By CHULARAT SAENGPASSA 
THE NATION

 

FILE photo

 

THE decades-long downward trend in the quality of Thai education can be reversed if key proposals set out over the past two years are embraced, members of the Independent Committee for Education Reform (ICER) believe.

 

“We have already delivered tangible guidelines for the education sector,” ICER president Professor Charas Suwanwela said ahead of his committee’s two-year tenure ending on May 31. The panel has suggested legislation including a National Education Bill, Equitable Education Fund Act and Early Childhood Act. 

 

“We have also identified areas for educational innovation,” Charas said. 

 

ICER was established two years ago to lead education reform efforts. It’s widely accepted that reform is badly needed in Thai schooling. The quality of education has shown little improvement despite more resources and bigger budgets been allocated.

 

“Over the past few decades many countries have surpassed Thailand in terms of education quality. This trend is unacceptable,” Charas said. 

 

He hopes the committee’s guidelines for reform will improve the sector in the next four or five years. 

 

Charas, preparing to pass on the torch later this week, emphasised that the new government will have to pay attention to problems in education and actively pursue solutions. 

 

“Rote learning prevails in the schools,” he said, and it’s resulted in Thai youngsters scoring below average in tests conducted as part of the Programme for International Student Assessment and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. 

 

Charas pointed out that graduates of Thai vocational schooled were also poorly skilled. “And Thailand’s higher-education institutes can’t compete at the international level either.”

 

He doesn’t see the greater resources devoted to education translating into better quality, and blames the failure of erroneous attitudes and perspectives. 

“Too many Thais still still believe college degrees are more important than individual competency,” he said. “Society also tends to think its the state’s duty alone to provide quality education, while in reality everybody should be contributing.” 

 

Dr Jiruth Sriratanaban, who chairs an ad-hoc ICER committee that formulated the National Education Bill, said ICER aimed to reduce inequality in education and boost competitiveness.

 

“The Equitable Education Fund has already started delivering support to children in need,” he said. 

 

The fund’s administrators have been working closely with the Office of Basic Education Commission since late last year to provide additional financing to students who might have to drop out of school because their families can’t afford it.

 

Jiruth said the Early Childhood Act promised to ensure that relevant ministries integrate their efforts to provide good care to children from a young age. 

 

“I believe tangible results will become visible soon,” he said, adding that ICER had conceived many good initiatives but was unable to complete them before its tenure elapsed. 

 

“So we hope relevant parties will support these initiatives in the future,” he said. 

 

Jiruth said citizens in general could contribute to school reform by closely monitoring the state agencies and organisations involved in the process.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30370016

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-05-27

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[Thaiwrath]

11 minutes ago, webfact said:

that the new government will have to pay attention to problems in education and actively pursue solutions.

I don't think they want the people educated, because if they educate them properly, it won't be long before they lose their position of power.

[gamb00ler]

4 minutes ago, Thaiwrath said:

I don't think they want the people educated, because if they educate them properly, it won't be long before they lose their position of power.

I have heard that argument several times (not just on TV) and it may very well be true.

 

I have also heard about how the administration of the education departments spend too much of the budget on things that really contribute nothing or very little to the students education.  Thailand isn't a rich country and they shouldn't be sending their classes on expensive trips to USA with several adults along for "supervision".  One of my in-laws was a teacher and her class went to Los Angeles including trips to Disneyland, Magic Mountain and Universal Studios.  I can't say for certain how that was funded, but I'm certainly suspicious.

 

One of the largest factors in a child's education is how much the parents are involved in ensuring that the material is learned.  I've seen parents insist that their children spend adequate time at their studies but the parents are not able/willing to be hands on to ensure understanding is achieved.

[Brigand]

The problem here is in secondary high school education really. At present, it's little more than 6 years of brainwashing nonsense which teaches them little and so many high school teachers are sub-par at best with some very strange notions of things as they too are a product of said brainwashing rubbish. I've spoken to a fair few tertiary uni teachers (foreign educated Thais as well as westerners) and many say that they get students that have supposedly been studying, say English, for like 12 years and they can't even answer the most basic questions. Other problem you have is that the teachers and government workers in education are one of the most resistant to change as they are on a good gig as it is now.

[Chazar]

57 minutes ago, webfact said:

THE decades-long downward trend

Decades to sort it out and it's  only worsened, well done!

[dcnx]

As long as they can’t freely speak their mind and are forced to kowtow and grovel, they won’t get anywhere.

[Fex Bluse]

One of our close family friends teaches at the Thai university regarded as the most prestigious. 

 

She told us that one significant problem is that Thai schooling is not to educate but rather to socialize, where Thai kids learn their place in the social order and to make connections to the people among that social order. 

 

I think this is reflected in the Thai priority of social order and cohesion above almost all else. Thailand is effectively a Caste country, like India. 

 

The families who actually want their children educated (and who have the means) send them out of Thailand post haste. 

[Reigntax]

The Thai education system is nothing but a farce to pretend it gives students an education. They have no knowledge of the world, history nor ability to think and analyse.

 

The average university graduate wouldnt pass a year 10 exam in a western high school.

[Odysseus123]

17 minutes ago, Reigntax said:

The Thai education system is nothing but a farce to pretend it gives students an education. They have no knowledge of the world, history nor ability to think and analyse.

 

The average university graduate wouldnt pass a year 10 exam in a western high school.

Thailand is a kinda like one vast Potemkin village.

 

All they have ever learned to do is to inhabit a faked stage set-to nominally adhere to some Western standards-whilst smiling and waving at the bosses as they float by..

[colinneil]

Ideas to reverse the decline !!

First thing is stop all this stupid nonsense of teachers going to useless seminars, when they should be teaching.

Teachers scouring the internet, looking for something to go to so they get a few days away, all expenses paid.... Crazy nonsense.

Stop the corruption of filling teaching posts by who gives the most money under the table.

When you have teachers who know absolutely nothing about anything outside of Thailand, what chance is there for children to learn.

[Destiny1990]

A typical Horrible looking local class room set up..

 

 

[mok199]

Words like ''Embrace, tangible guidelines and innovations in Education'' are just western words Thais will never know the meaning of..

[mikebell]

So they've spent years studying the decline in Education standards; they've agreed that new ideas should be introduced but I don't see any of these ideas listed above.

As a teacher of English for 39 years, here's a couple of improvements I'd like to see:

 

despite a huge budget many schools lack basic necessities like Air/con except for the elite classes;

some of this money disappears before it reaches schools because of the layers of bureaucracy in the Civil Service;

many of the schools are run as businesses by Directors and unprincipled Principals - profit is the bottom line not raising standards;

teachers are appointed not on merit but through connections/cash;

nobody fails exams!

[George Bowman]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Over the past few decades many countries have surpassed Thailand in terms of education quality.

There is a local school about two kilometers down the road from from my place. I use to help out but no more. Here is just one reason.

 

A few years back a library/study hall was built by funds raised by an international school in Bangkok. Some of these high school students even traveled to the upcountry school to help with painting as part of a community project. The building turned out great with a hand painted mural covering one wall and long tables for studying. Even had air conditioning. This original concept only last a few months. Then the local school's administration team decided that they needed a new office.

 

Students are no longer allowed inside the building...

 

 

 

 

[dinsdale]

If there was no corruption (LOL) then there would be more money for teachers and more teachers. Maybe there wouldn't be 50 kids in one class.

[PatOngo]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

“Over the past few decades many countries have surpassed Thailand in terms of education quality. This trend is unacceptable,”

So why has it been accepted for the past few decades then?

[Nowisee]

37 minutes ago, Reigntax said:

The Thai education system is nothing but a farce to pretend it gives students an education. They have no knowledge of the world, history nor ability to think and analyse.

 

The average university graduate wouldnt pass a year 10 exam in a western high school.

 

True

True

True

 

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid. - Benjamin Franklin

 

 

[mok199]

2 hours ago, dcnx said:

As long as they can’t freely speak their mind and are forced to kowtow and grovel, they won’t get anywhere.

Correct.......its the thai way or the hi way..

[SoilSpoil]

No matter how much money invested, defeating corruption, improving teaching and learning standards, as long as students are not required to learn from mistakes, aka No Fail policy, its all fruitless.

[Orton Rd]

Went to parents day with niece on Sunday. Teacher banging on and on about the importance of learning English, the English teacher cannot speak a sentence! Rather like trying to teach somebody to drive when they can't drive themselves. So that's one innovation, employ teachers who know what they are doing, expecting Schools to teach kids how to think instead of what to think is never going to happen here.

[Farang99]

As "Thai education" consists of sitting in a crowded classroom, learning whatever the teacher says by heart, so that it can be regurgitated for the exams, merely tinkering with the details is not going to make any difference.

 

It would need a whole new system, with competent and dedicated teachers prepared to allow discussion and questions in the classroom.

[irwinfc]

nobody is interested in properly educating children here. private schools are only interested in profits, public schools are not interested in anything at all, and some teachers from both are only interested in working for their tutor schools/classes. tutor schools form a big industry here because they are seen as essential to complement the inadequate curriculum. but why change things, right?

 

what about the sathit/demonstration schools? they've been around for decades and has well been recognized to have superior curricula over regular schools, yet the remain a novelty. when will the "demonstration" end and start the actual implementation.

[Briggsy]

If you want to improve performance in any field from manufacturing to refuse collection to education, measure the indicators and allow independent oversight.

 

No Thai government entity from the Police to the Commerce Ministry to the Ministry of Education from cabinet level down through departments and divisions allows anybody to measure indicators or oversee their work. This is because they are often lazy, incompetent and corrupt. This would be easily picked up by auditors.

 

The result is no oversight and no improvement. You don't need a fancy set of degrees to work this out.

[Srikcir]

2 hours ago, Fex Bluse said:

One of our close family friends teaches at the Thai university regarded as the most prestigious. 

Mahidol University aside, none of Thai universities placed within the top 100 universities according to  Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2018. http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/mahidol-thailands-top-university-thai-universities-fallen-asias-rankings/

Prestigious Thai universities on a global measure don't rank much better.

https://www.mastersportal.com/ranking-country/138/thailand.html

[owl sees all]

57 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

Went to parents day with niece on Sunday. Teacher banging on and on about the importance of learning English, the English teacher cannot speak a sentence! Rather like trying to teach somebody to drive when they can't drive themselves. So that's one innovation, employ teachers who know what they are doing, expecting Schools to teach kids how to think instead of what to think is never going to happen here.

The first school the daughter attended was 30km away. Very clean and orderly. 10k a year, She was picked up at 16-00 but school finished for the younger children at 15-00. For that hour she would chat to her pals and play.

 

One day she brought home a letter (in Thai). Mrs Owl got quite excited. "What does the letter say dear?" "Mildred has been selected for extra English tuition - each day between 3 and 4 - and they are only charging 500 baht a month." I said we should look into it.

 

A couple of days later we went to the school for more info'. We were guided into an office where wais were exchanged with a couple of teachers. Mrs Owl had a 10 minute conversation (no idea what it was about) while I stood there like a lemon. I finally interjected. "Sorry to interrupt, but I want to meet the English teacher." The two ladies didn't understand this so the wife translated for them. After getting the answer the wife said to me; "they are the two teachers." I think Mildred could have taught them.

 

Her present school is closer, better, and has an Ozzy English teacher (daughter says she can understand him OK). 12k baht a year.

[Emdog]

In related area, it wrenches my gut to see adverts on Thai TV promoting some milk or whatever with extra vitamins, or that essence of chicken crap that will somehow turn your kid into astronaut. Parents want the best for their kids, want to see them succeed. Teaching them to be curious about the world, to ask questions is a good step. But that will lead to them be labeled troublemakers at school.

 Some rote learning may have had a place once upon a time decades ago. Now with net searches and world of info at finger tips, ability to ask useful questions, to think critically is essential.

[TKDfella]

I echo many of the comments here with regard to actual teaching of topics necessary for world life today. In addition I would add, as I said on other related threads, that teaching traditional Thai dance and related activities should be done as an extracurricular activity and not instead of necessary academic topics. I drove past a local infant school on their first day back at around 10:30 a.m. and the foreground was full of children and teachers doing just that.

The education system has to decide between teaching traditional topics and falling even further behind or seriously pursuing academic studies. I think it will be the former.

[Krataiboy]

4 hours ago, Fex Bluse said:

One of our close family friends teaches at the Thai university regarded as the most prestigious. 

 

She told us that one significant problem is that Thai schooling is not to educate but rather to socialize, where Thai kids learn their place in the social order and to make connections to the people among that social order. 

 

I think this is reflected in the Thai priority of social order and cohesion above almost all else. Thailand is effectively a Caste country, like India. 

 

The families who actually want their children educated (and who have the means) send them out of Thailand post haste. 

I wouldn't bother unless parents are happy to get their children's heads filled with the  "progressive" nonsense promulgated by the left-dominated academia of in countries like the UK and US.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Ideas in place to reverse decline in Thai education

Change the entire education board?
now there's a radical idea!

[Bob12345]

The problems in Thai education will not be easy to solve. 

 

Basically everybody has the same background as they all went through the Thai educational system. Nobody wants to rock the boat, nobody can think outside the box, they are all too proud to look at other countries or accept outside help, and they are rather rich and lazy than non-corrupt and tired.

 

Good luck solving this...

Till that time I will send my kids to private schools and will push them towards getting part of their education at their second country (my home country).