Thai universities drop in world rankings

[Pilotman]

Not at all a surprise. The education system in Thailand is terrible, almost none existent. and while they make qualified foreign teachers jump through stupid hoops to teach here, no help is coming from outside. Mind you, employing 'English Teachers' who have only the basic TEFL qualification and little to no practical classroom training , or performance assessment, is not helping either.  

[Pilotman]

1 hour ago, genericptr said:

Can anyone summarize what's wrong with Thai universities? I assume their broken considering the broken work ethic I observe but I'm curious what they're actually doing.

Everything, from teaching standards, to content, to validity of content, to examination performance,  to relevance of subject matter, to student background knowledge.......  etc etc etc.  

[bkkgriz]

3 hours ago, Fex Bluse said:

And so they can buy somtum and sticky rice cheap. Everyone (well mainly the brown people) should know their place and be happy for the little they get 

Wait. What? Are you saying Thai people are being racist towards Thai people? How does that work? Brown people are higher up in the progressive stack than light Thais? This is identity politics run amok.

[kannot]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

world top 600

comical

[Lupatria]

After the new ranking was published, some people furiously want to give back their 'certificates' or 'degrees' and burn all proudly collected insignia:

 

        

[Lupatria]

Well, for some the 'education system' works perfectly, even though it is based on old philosophy:

[kannot]

3 hours ago, Jessi said:

This must be fake news as we all know.

 

"Thailand the HUB of RE-Education"

Surely u meant...

[GinBoy2]

13 minutes ago, bkkgriz said:

Wait. What? Are you saying Thai people are being racist towards Thai people? How does that work? Brown people are higher up in the progressive stack than light Thais? This is identity politics run amok.

Well if you don’t understand the internal racism of Thailand you haven’t lived there long enough.

 

So when me and Mrs G moved to Thailand from Singapore and got married she went off with her sister to buy a wedding dress in Bangkok. 

Now, she’s a Material Scientist graduate from the University of Chicago, and probably smarter than 80% of the Thai population, certainly smarter than me!

But she’s very clearly Lao.

They went to a rather upscale store to look for her wedding dress. The probably thick as pig shit shop girl actually demanded to look at her hands to check she wasn’t a farmer!

Yeah there’s internal racism

Edited September 27, 2018 by GinBoy2

[Caracena]

Guys, why do you believe in all these stupid listings and rankings? You really think that they are the ultimate truth? Look at the recent UN List of countries by Human Development Index: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index

 

How did Venezuela (78th place) get ahead of Brazil(79th place)? In Venezuela people are dying from hunger, most of population eats 1 or 2 meals per day only and UN still considers Venezuela more developed than Brazil?

And this is the list of United nations - a respected organization.

I'm not saying that Thailand has good educational system, but take these listings and ratings not so seriously.

Edited September 27, 2018 by Caracena

[kannot]

10 minutes ago, Caracena said:

Guys, why do you believe in all these stupid listings and rankings? You really think that they are the ultimate truth? Look at the recent UN List of countries by Human Development Index: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index

 

How did Venezuela (78th place) get ahead of Brazil(79th place)? In Venezuela people are dying from hunger, most of population eats 1 or 2 meals per day only and UN still considers Venezuela more developed than Brazil?

And this is the list of United nations - a respected organization.

I'm not saying that Thailand has good educational system, but take these listings and ratings not so seriously.

Id  need a  calculator to do any sums so im ok thx...........reminds me of somewhere else though

[marko kok prong]

Look at the schools out of a week how much time is spent in the classroom,why everyday do i see kids  in uniform driving round in school hours on motorbikes ,add that to the extremely long holidays i would say less than 20 hours a week actually learning .

[Srikcir]

3 hours ago, Cadbury said:

Prayut Chan-o-cha's twelve values of education:

All of which can be summarized :

 

 

[BritManToo]

I was just interested to see I graduated from 250th in the world, then did my postgrad at 80th in the world.

All paid for by the British government.

Edited September 27, 2018 by BritManToo

[hotchilli]

Reap what you sow

 

[mstribling]

..., and looking back I think the best I did was pay for better quality friends.

This sums up private Thai schools nicely.


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[PerkinsCuthbert]

Do the criteria of this worthless report include Thainess?

[KMartinHandyman]

After the new ranking was published, some people furiously want to give back their 'certificates' or 'degrees' and burn all proudly collected insignia:
 
        

The sprocket assembly explains a lot.

[Khun Paul]

No surprises there, most graduates I know who major in English have difficulty in actually speaking a sensible sentence 

 

[Fex Bluse]

4 hours ago, bkkgriz said:

Wait. What? Are you saying Thai people are being racist towards Thai people? How does that work? Brown people are higher up in the progressive stack than light Thais? This is identity politics run amok.

I was using a generalization to make what I think is a valid point. Sino Thais dominate the country. Some may say it's because they brought with them from the old country better cultural habits. Others contend that they have now stacked the system (as they have tried to throughout southeast Asia) against the natives. 

 

Tried the same in Malaysia, but the Bhumis at least fight back a little. 

 

Tried the same in Indonesia but the Indos beat them back. 

 

Vietnamese beat them back. 

 

Now they are trying for world domination as we all know. 

 

That's the pattern. Smart, hardworking, often dishonest and pragmatic, patient and calculating. 

[Fex Bluse]

4 hours ago, Caracena said:

Guys, why do you believe in all these stupid listings and rankings? You really think that they are the ultimate truth? Look at the recent UN List of countries by Human Development Index: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index

 

How did Venezuela (78th place) get ahead of Brazil(79th place)? In Venezuela people are dying from hunger, most of population eats 1 or 2 meals per day only and UN still considers Venezuela more developed than Brazil?

And this is the list of United nations - a respected organization.

I'm not saying that Thailand has good educational system, but take these listings and ratings not so seriously.

Both are absolutely atrocious garbage places. The list seems about right in that regard. Both effectively active war zones 

[Burma Bill]

Not surprised when 12 PLUS 8 = 4!!!!

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, Khun Paul said:

No surprises there, most graduates I know who major in English have difficulty in actually speaking a sensible sentence 

 

 

Well Thais do study other subjects in uni besides English. 

[natway09]

Too stubborn to change ????

[Odysseus123]

1 hour ago, Fex Bluse said:

I was using a generalization to make what I think is a valid point. Sino Thais dominate the country. Some may say it's because they brought with them from the old country better cultural habits. Others contend that they have now stacked the system (as they have tried to throughout southeast Asia) against the natives. 

 

Tried the same in Malaysia, but the Bhumis at least fight back a little. 

 

Tried the same in Indonesia but the Indos beat them back. 

 

Vietnamese beat them back. 

 

Now they are trying for world domination as we all know. 

 

That's the pattern. Smart, hardworking, often dishonest and pragmatic, patient and calculating. 

I think that the Vietnamese beat the US back (and their associated hangers on-including my own country)first before handling the Chinese.

 

Feisty folk.

[GinBoy2]

12 hours ago, Khun Paul said:

No surprises there, most graduates I know who major in English have difficulty in actually speaking a sensible sentence 

 

So I’m not going to comment on what English they learn in college, but with my son it was laughable throughout grade school.

 

This was a kid who from the age of 5 spoke totally fluent English (yeah yeah American English) and he could read and write fluently by the age of 10.

 

His English ‘teacher' in High School was partially fluent at best, and as far as I could determine semi illiterate in written English. It actually hurt him I think, since he would giggle in class at some of the things she would say it were so ridiculous. He’d come home, where we all spoke English as the first language, and tell us what had gone on, and it was past crazy.

 

I went to the school once right before he graduated to complain (in Thai) and was basically berated as a ignorant farang.

 

Trouble at that point, we just wanted him to graduate, so it was a ‘hold your nose’ and get through it

 

Now that was at a pretty decent private school, don’t think the quality would improve that much in college, let alone your average village school

[Fex Bluse]

 

1 hour ago, GinBoy2 said:

So I’m not going to comment on what English they learn in college, but with my son it was laughable throughout grade school.

 

This was a kid who from the age of 5 spoke totally fluent English (yeah yeah American English) and he could read and write fluently by the age of 10.

 

His English ‘teacher' in High School was partially fluent at best, and as far as I could determine semi illiterate in written English. It actually hurt him I think, since he would giggle in class at some of the things she would say it were so ridiculous. He’d come home, where we all spoke English as the first language, and tell us what had gone on, and it was past crazy.

 

I went to the school once right before he graduated to complain (in Thai) and was basically berated as a ignorant farang.

 

Trouble at that point, we just wanted him to graduate, so it was a ‘hold your nose’ and get through it

 

Now that was at a pretty decent private school, don’t think the quality would improve that much in college, let alone your average village school

  

English is generally appalling here. That would be fine but for the fact that, with the exception of the bar girls and other entertainment industry people, Thais seem to prefer to use English only as a means to express style and social class. They are generally uninterested in conversing with non-Thais. 

 

 

Edited September 27, 2018 by Fex Bluse

[wotsdermatter]

"Thailand the HUB of Education", quoted from above comments.  Remember when the man on top of the governmental pile said that Thai would be the next lingua franca?  Has not happened yet.  My first teaching position in Thailand was at a "Teachers College."  I asked all of the Thai instructors what the grading system consisted of and was informed by all that it "is up to you."  Tow volunteer teachers from the U.S.A. told me their grades went from 60 up.  All of my students were informed of my grading system based upon those two recommendations, and it was written into my attendance/grading book.  After the first semester, the head of the department had a talk with me as two Thai staff members had complained.  She saw my book and all pertinent notes regarding each student and agreed that I was correct in what I had done.  However, the two complainants went to the principle and had me fired.  Why? They had lost face as my students ended up above average in their grades and knowledge.  When working in such a redundant atmosphere, is it any wonder that the students had to go out upon graduation and not be able to understand let alone teach their target language.  Another problem is that Thais are appointed to study subjects based upon their entrance examination results not necessarily what they actually want to study.

 

Later while working at a couple of universities, contradictory to many comments on this forum, I taught and assisted many students who could read, write, speak, and think in English and were good at what they did because they wanted to get ahead and knew that education and learning English would help provide them with the assets needed to achieve their goals.  Still, generally, the education system is broken and will never be fixed until there are major changes but the Thais in positions to make those changes will never do so as they feel threatened their way of life would dissolve and leave them with nothing, which is what they should have.

 

'nuf sed

[stud858]

Power trumps smartness everyday of the week.

Go Trump!

 

[rkidlad]

22 hours ago, Cadbury said:

This comes as no surprise and will only continue to worsen if the PM's guide to education standards are followed. There is only one value among all these which is related to education which is no. 4. The rest are just moralistic and indoctrination guidelines for teachers and students.

Ultimately in theory Thailand will become a country with people of  high morals standards and loyalty but little or no education.

                            Prayut Chan-o-cha's twelve values of education:

1. Loyalty to the Nation, a Religion, and the Monarchy

2. Honesty, sacrifice, endurance, and noble ideology for the greater good

3. Gratitude for parents, guardians, and teachers

4. Diligence in acquiring knowledge, via school studies and other methods

5. Preserving the Thai customs and tradition

5. Morality and good will toward others

6. Correct understanding of democracy with the King as Head of State

7. Discipline, respect for law, and obedience to the older citizens

8. Constant consciousness to practice good deeds all the time, as taught by His Majesty the King

9. Practice of Self-Sufficient Economy in accordance with the teaching of His Majesty the King

10. Physical and mental strength. Refusal to surrender to religious sins.

11. Uphold the interest of the nation over oneself.

You misquoted number 11.

 

It’s ‘uphold the interest of the top 1% over oneself’. 

[GinBoy2]

3 hours ago, wotsdermatter said:

Still, generally, the education system is broken and will never be fixed until there are major changes but the Thais in positions to make those changes will never do so as they feel threatened their way of life would dissolve and leave them with nothing, which is what they should have.

 

'nuf sed

My wife who after her parents died went to live with her uncle in the US in what would be her sophomore year of High School is is probably even more pessimistic than most of us are about the prospects of anything changing.

Her take is that it requires a multi generational change, and even if a government comes along with vision that basically changed Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea through education, we’ll not be alive to see any of the results.

And she thinks thats a big ‘if'