British Experts Offer To Help Develop Thai Schools' Human Resources

[george]

British experts offer to help develop Thai schools' human resources

BANGKOK: -- British experts have offered to help develop Thai schools' human resources, Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) secretary general Khunying Kasama Varavarn na Ayutthaya disclosed Monday.

Kasama was referring to a recent meeting with National Remodelling Team for Britain's education. The British team also inspected substandard schools in Thailand.

Following their inspection, the British team recommended that the development of Thai schools should focus on leadership enhancement, teamwork and human resources at the schools. The staffs at the schools should also understand why they have to change.

-- The Nation 2007-01-22

[PhilHarries]

British experts in education? There's an oxymoronic phrase if I ever heard one.

Having largely destroyed secondary education in the UK they are after exporting their ideas.

Send them back and tell them "Fix your own substandard schools then come tell us how to run an education system".

Grrrrrr!

That said as a Brit. I bet their here at taxpayer's expense, choice being tackle the problems of the schools around Speke (Liverpool suburb) or go out to Thailand and have a little look see with a bit of PR thrown in.

I could go on but I 'll shutup before I break forum rules. I'm off for a beers

[Dupont]

British experts offer to help develop Thai schools' human resources

BANGKOK: -- British experts have offered to help develop Thai schools' human resources, Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) secretary general Khunying Kasama Varavarn na Ayutthaya disclosed Monday.

Kasama was referring to a recent meeting with National Remodelling Team for Britain's education. The British team also inspected substandard schools in Thailand.

Following their inspection, the British team recommended that the development of Thai schools should focus on leadership enhancement, teamwork and human resources at the schools. The staffs at the schools should also understand why they have to change.

-- The Nation 2007-01-22

They made recomendations to Thais None so green as newbies.

If they really wanted them to take action they should have said

"Your education system is fantastic and your idea that Thai schools should focus on leadership enhancement, teamwork and human resourses at the schools can only improve things even further. I also agree with you that the staffs at the schools should also understand why they have to change"

They talk such <deleted> these NGO's. Now it will be off to the beach for a month until the Thais ask them what the hel_l all those fancy words mean in the report. Thought there was a plain english compaign group in the UK.

And, how can you focus both on Leadership enhancement and teamwork? bit like saying, "you should be painting all the doors black as well as white at the same time"

I'm with Phil, get the NGO's away from here. Our schools in England which were ruined by these left wing loonies in the 80's and 90's are certainly nothing to be aiming for. these are the same people that Hijacked the Labour Party and kept them out of power for over a decade. Failing in Politics, they slunk off to wreak havoc in the education system, the Law Courts, Social Services and Local Government.

Never at any time did they ever gain any popular support. Just an endless wave of PC drivel!

Edited January 22, 2007 by Dupont

[rychrde]

National Remodelling Team

I briefly worked for the Dept of Ed and it was full of bs. Like everywhere else, the main function of a civil servant or a politician is to avoid losing their job. Anything that might actually improve the lives of people comes about as a purely accidental side-effect of trying to do nothing.

However, if the Thai ministry would like me to translate the verbose garbage they have been handed then I will be happy to do so!

actually....the Thais will like this.

leadership enhancement = pay the boss more

teamwork = give the boss more powers

human resources = replace any teachers who do not follow orders.

voila'!

erm... do we actually need students?

rych

[Robski]

British experts offer to help develop Thai schools' human resources

BANGKOK: -- British experts have offered to help develop Thai schools' human resources, Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) secretary general Khunying Kasama Varavarn na Ayutthaya disclosed Monday.

Kasama was referring to a recent meeting with National Remodelling Team for Britain's education. The British team also inspected substandard schools in Thailand.

Following their inspection, the British team recommended that the development of Thai schools should focus on leadership enhancement, teamwork and human resources at the schools. The staffs at the schools should also understand why they have to change.

-- The Nation 2007-01-22

They made recomendations to Thais None so green as newbies.

If they really wanted them to take action they should have said

"Your education system is fantastic and your idea that Thai schools should focus on leadership enhancement, teamwork and human resourses at the schools can only improve things even further. I also agree with you that the staffs at the schools should also understand why they have to change"

They talk such <deleted> these NGO's. Now it will be off to the beach for a month until the Thais ask them what the hel_l all those fancy words mean in the report. Thought there was a plain english compaign group in the UK.

And, how can you focus both on Leadership enhancement and teamwork? bit like saying, "you should be painting all the doors black as well as white at the same time"

I'm with Phil, get the NGO's away from here. Our schools in England which were ruined by these left wing loonies in the 80's and 90's are certainly nothing to be aiming for. these are the same people that Hijacked the Labour Party and kept them out of power for over a decade. Failing in Politics, they slunk off to wreak havoc in the education system, the Law Courts, Social Services and Local Government.

Never at any time did they ever gain any popular support. Just an endless wave of PC drivel!

I agree with you both, but I'd just like to point out that the Tories we're in power in the '80's and '90's., so Dupont if you're having a political rant... well you know... nuff said.

Anyway it does seem a bit superficial, but one good thing that they could sort out is a way for the Thai MoE to liase with the British MoE to verify qualifications and criminal record status of prospective English teachers in Thailand, now that would be nice wouldn't it.

Edited January 22, 2007 by Robski

[PeaceBlondie]

Don't worry; it's unlikely that the Thai bureaucracy will listen to the English education experts. Unlikely that they'll reform a terribly ineffective public education system that they never really reformed in the last ten years.

Did these British experts visit schools with 51 students, no air/con in April, black chalkboards, and public address systems that cost ten quid in 1985? I doubt it.

I'll advise them for free, here and now, based on only two years' experience teaching public school here:

Retire every teacher over 50.

Eliminate multiple choice tests.

If the student doesn't know the subject, fail him. No matter who his family is.

Do not just teach students to memorize by rote. Teach them how, why, if.

Reduce class size to 27.

Raise starting salary to $10,000 baht/month.

It won't happen. Thailand cannot make it into the modern age. I fear they may eventually only be able to grow rice, assemble Hondas, sell somtam, and rent out their children.

[Robski]

Sad but true PB.

[Dupont]

Sorry Robski, I agree with you and sorry for the rant.

The left kept her in though by making themselves un-electable was what I was ranting talking about.

Many of em still about in the education profession though and now maggies gone, nobody has the balls to take em on. And as for the legal profession and Cheri Bloody Blair, I'm going to have to censor myself and go for a cold shower and lie down at the mere remembrance of her.

Good point on the Police checks. I know not many bad uns get through, but the few that do slip in create hysteria amongst the ruling class here and many problems for the legitamate ones. Having a legit degree and work permit doesn't make life any easier here than for the illegals.

Edited January 22, 2007 by Dupont

[Robski]

The left kept her in though by making themselves un-electable was what I was ranting talking about.

Yeh true, they kind of got in by default in the end.

[Robski]

I guess we could do with some more details as to what is being discussed. There are some good ideas that could be promoted, such as verification of teachers credentials and a standard set of relevant english text books, but I.. ooh hold.. got to go, a pig just flew past my window, that's not the first one I've seen lately.

Edited January 22, 2007 by Robski

[PeaceBlondie]

It isn't just TEFL in Thailand; it's the entire educational system. The longer I stay here (almost four years, not much yet), it appears the system doesn't teach Thai, science, math, problem solving, or anything much at all. Only a few Thai unis apparently graduate engineers who can actually design motors or airports, teachers who understand the basics of effective pedagogy, titans of business who understand economics, etc.

Instead of a cold shower, I took a long walk between these posts, and decided it might be in Thailand's best interest to remain in the 19th century. Why should this country become completely capitalist, cutthroat, violent, consumerist? They've got their mobile phones; they don't all need Toyota Camrys.

[Pakboong]

The simple fact that the word choice of "change" instead of "improve" grabs me immediately. The vast majority of change is in fact, not improvement.

[Dupont]

Most of us who teach or have taught here are aware of certain problems. For the record I lost interest in teaching 5 years ago and will never go back to it.

The no fail rule sets the scene for the lifelong learning process. Even when your Thai class are adults, paying what in Thai terms is a lot of money to learn, attendance is terrible. Its an ingrained culture with them and they turn up for the last lesson or three, hope they can catch up all of the previous terms work and walk off with a certificate.

They are right about walking off with the certificate though! The problem here being that they (as in the schools) progress to the next level, where they are even further behind the pace of the course than the previous term. If they have failed level one, then go on to fail lever two, level three is going to further above their heads than Robskis flying pigs. My wife says their teachers put the answers on the board when they did their school leaving exams.

Direction would also help as would achievability. Go for something attainable and leave the grandious sweeping statements about hubs of learning, centres of excellence etc. alone and try to learn to walk. Running comes later. All Thai students are not going to catch up with American University Students during the next thousand years, so lets hear less of it.

Reality check 1:- Real teachers are not coming here for careers that pay 30,000 baht a month, require trips to Malaysia every few months to teach regularly absent and non attentive kids in oven like classrooms.

Get real, your teaching stock is going to consist (for the near future) mainly of western men married to Thais or with Thai girlfriends and round the world backpackers that have set up camp here for a while. Many in this second category (much as I hate backpackers) have good qualifications as many are just out of University. They will, however be out of the country pretty ###### quick once they learn that they cannot teach effectively in this country and will never earn enough money to do more than survive. Theres your consistency gone.

Sometimes you have to use and make the most of what you have. Why not do some real training, or offer real part time degrees etc?

Reality check 2:- You don't need a University trained teacher to teach spoken English. The Thai teachers actually teach fairly good grammar if you look at your students written works. Look at TEFL as coaching which is what it is.

Anyway a pig has just crashed into my satelite dish and I must fix it so we can watch our daily diet of slap stick comedy, drum beats, honking horns and quacking sound effects and all.... Did I mention Television? Oh well