zyphodb

Any improvements in education have to be bettered by improving, in fact changing, the attitude of those involved in the profession.

Schools, school directors, teachers etc have a nice little thing going and most definitely oppose change which will affect them, forget the students.

How can changes work if application is left in the hands of the same people with the same attitudes ?

The kids said it nicely, But don't forget the education ministry bureaucrats etc. they don't wanna lose their slice of the pie or have it reduced, And then does anyone in power or pulling the strings really want an educated populace?

Of course nothing will change, mores the pity.....

"1) the schools are offering bad contracts/salaries. 2) there is not enough teachers. or 3) the TCT have completely screwed up by demanding too high a standard for teachers to be able to be employed now."

All of the above.

I agree with Duane, But I think the main one is expecting teachers with master's degrees rather than TEFAL ers, Who have at least studied the appropriate subject, to work for 30000 Baht/month ish teaching Children in a broken education system that mostly aren't interested in the slightest in learning English when you can get 3x plus the wages & be teaching kids that want to learn in a different country... If you had that masters degree would you really want to teach here???

No One's going to spray the rice paddies so we can all forget about any of this outside of the cities & large towns,

Just take what personal precautions you can, nets, screens, dressing up at the right times of day etc. & just hope you don't get one of the several varieties of it while being thankful that we don't really get much Malaria here....

It's strange how a topic on a woman's disputed weed patch turns into a political whinge session.

I dont think its at all strange, come on TIT, have you never come across "face"???

This public service ad came out a year or two ago....the problem is so huge.

I can tell you that an enormous amount of school money is wasted on junkets for administrators, 'training' and 'educational' trips around the country and abroad for teachers which amount to nothing but paid-for holidays, parties and social events, ridiculous uniforms and more nonsense.

One school I know spend B4.5 mil on a trip to a resort in another province where 130 teachers/staff did SFA for three days but drink and eat on the school's dime. Another sent 40 teachers to Japan for some unclear reason. Another bought B3,500 custom-tailored gaudy uniforms for teachers to be worn once a month...and the school had over 200 staff. Yet another built a huge multimedia lecture hall, had a royal inaugurate it, and then only uses it for huge parties, with no student ever having stepped into it for the purpose of study.

The administrators are corrupt and rubbish at the tasks that don't involve personal gain.

The teachers are poorly trained in pedagogy and never want to learn anything new.

The students are led to believe that they are fulfilling patriotic duty 'learning' they way they do.

The parents don't give a shit because they grew up with the same thing and at least the kids are out of the house.

Everybody smile, wai, repeat.

Utterly ridiculous.

Only just noticed this, sums it up nicely....

No it isn't funding priorities it is quality of education.

I read a report this morning on a study, which I cant find now, which found that kids IQ actually dropped when they started school.

That's right school made them less intelligent.

What is needed is a huge lift in the quality of education in this country starting with the teachers and the conditions they work under, there are some good dedicated teachers and some not so good but the curriculums they are expect to teach and the rote or copying from books prevents them doing their best for the kids.

The first thing that is needed is dedicated teachers collages or universities, or what ever they want to call them, which teach teaching rather than a degree in general education at a standard Uni where they are then sent to schools as trainee teachers and taught to do things the old teachers way.

These collages need to be based on overseas models with specialist subjects taught so as well as basic primary teachers they can turn out math, English, science and other specialist teachers. There needs to be facility for those who are already teaching to do (be sent on) refresher courses to update their teaching skills.

The whole curricula needs revamping and in particular the culture of "Don't ask the teacher questions they will lose face if they don't know the answer".

Every school should have parent input, for instance; 'Parent teacher committees' that meet at least monthly.

There must also be school inspectors who would meet and work with the parents on these committees with parents having direct access to the inspectors.

Bad teachers would soon be weeded out and either dismissed of sent back to a training collage, school directors would have to be accountable.

All schools must audit accounts which must be approved by the parent committees and sent to a school audit office.

Some may say parents don't care but I will tell you this, there are enough parents of kids at any school who do care and want to see their kids get a better education and a better deal.

You are quite right but the "establishment" here are going to fight tooth & nail to keep it where it is now, a nice little earner for the "right" people whilst keeping the poor, stupid & easily manipulated, which is exactly what certain people want... Don't hold your breath...

They will not b e able to stop corruption in the foreseeable future. The soul of the nation operates on the premise that corruption is an entitlement. The idea that there is a public service sector does not exist here; if you work for the gov't, you are entitled to the spoils that come with the job.

Of the very, very few politicians who have ever been viewed as having clean hands, they were quietly complicit in allowing others to be corrupt. Years ago, some of the major politicians were on the DEA list as major drug traffickers when opium was grown in the Golden Triangle. Exploitation of neighbors has been a long standing tradition from the estimated 40% death rate of Vietnamese boat people headed to Thailand years ago, to the killing, abduction and holding for ransom of the Rohingyas. There is, and has been, the on-going exploitation of foreign labor as well. In all of these situations, quite high level people have been involved. They are seldom tried, unless they fall from favor with one party or another.

The trough is always there and it is just a matter of who is judged as deserving of feeding from it.

I think Credo puts it quite well, the only change will be the beneficiaries of corruption in the top tiers depending on whether they are "liked" by the Generals & their puppet masters or not...

sad, but it's hard to imagine anything changing without a civil war which would be very uncivil & something no-one wants...

Swimming in the River by our Village in Chaiyaphum province....

Panasonic FZ200 1/1600th/sec F4

This is my daughter Abigail enjoying her rustic bath outside my house in Isaan....

taken on my ig 5.5 phone 1/100th /sec & F 2

Riding on white lines is maybe ok in the dry here but when it rains those white lines are slippery as hell,a good way to fall off banking around a corner... I suspect that in the 1st world sand is put in the paint that they use for road markings. They certainly dont do that here...

A head full of yabba wouldn´t help either........

And there is the truth of probably 80% of the road rage in this country, the Yabba combined with Lao Chow a lot of the time just to make them even more deranged...

Did I read that right??? according to that, out of 102 countries there are 73 that are more corrupt than Thailand

Well Im glad I don't live in one of them then....

For the poor about the same if not a bit worse, for the rich better...

We've just recently got on it, didnt notice the car when it went through though, our village is in the back of beyond so I was surprised too...

This is the river Chai that Chaiyaphum gets its name from, about 40 Km upstream where it passes our village, that platform in the river is the pump that sucks our villages water out, its not looking very good at all...

I've noticed for the last few weeks our Greek friend has been strangely silent.....

Is this because the repeatedly caustic comments some members reply to him with have finally got through his thick skin or is it something more serious???

Answers on a postcard please.....

Yeah, right.........

She's given up rice & is growing Manioc now, also like many others so no doubt the price will drop dramatically come harvest time assuming it makes it that far...

Its very hard to make any money as an Isaan peasant farmer, especially in Chaiyaphum province....

I live in Chaiyaphum too & one thing that I've heard is the main reason that Chaiyaphum s such a poor province is because the weather is so unpredictable here, I can testify to the truth of this having watched my wife, (& many others) plant 3 rice crops in the last 3 years & only successfully cropped one of them. The first one drowned, the second one was good & the third one this year died through lack of water...

Will there be a background check on people like K. Suthep?

Guess.........

Its the same problem all practically all customer services have here, & the Gov & councils come to that. A lot of Thais lie to get jobs, not badly, but if asked if they can speak & write English they say yes & then get work in customer services where they delete any email written in English because they don't understand it, & give you the runaround if they get an English language phone call.

Thailands businesses will never be able to have an international online presence until companies all employ staff who can read & write English properly.

Of course given the educational standards here this is never going to happen, & they won't employ foreign staff due to ongoing Gov policy, plus these hypothetical staff would want proper wages which the Thai companies won't want to pay...

So all in all I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for proper customer service for "aliens" in Thailand, still lost in their own little bubble....

A hard day at Bangkok flower market...

Fujifilm finepicx F30

My wife cooking Bamboo shoots on the farm...

Lumix FZ200 on Inteli auto

Expensive mushrooms??? Hallucinatory ones I've heard of but expensive???

Something lost in the translation I think....