Educators worry teaching system in Thailand ‘breaking down’

[moontang]

The ED majors seem to be of especially low caliber in LOS.  Even in the US, about half could work successfully in the private sector.  Here, they seem to be more aloof, lacking greatly in general knowledge, and lost in a world of underachievement and bureaucracy.  Economics, Geography, Maths?  If a lady tells me she runs a "noodle chop," that would be a lot better than her being a teacher....IMO.

Edited October 16, 2018 by moontang

[scorecard]

40 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Yes he was but the education Renaissance was actually from another visionary education minister Yong Nyuk Lin. He was the first education minister under Lee. He uplifted the teacher training quality with Lee’ guidance. The pioneer ministers like Yong and Goh (FM) contributed much to Singapore successes. Thailand is a Kakistocracy with a non visionary non elected leader. 

Non visionary leaders - yes for at least the past 40 years.

[Chippy151]

15 minutes ago, moontang said:

The ED majors seem to be of especially low caliber in LOS.  Even in the US, about half could work successfully in the private sector.  Here, they seem to be more aloof, lacking greatly in general knowledge, and lost in a world of underachievement and bureaucracy.  Economics, Geography, Maths?  

History, current affairs, English (obviously) anything?

[Eric Loh]

32 minutes ago, scorecard said:

Non visionary leaders - yes for at least the past 40 years.

Rest easy mate, elected visionary leaders will disappoint the people and be voted out. However non-elected that seized power.............refused to allow the people decide. 

[madmitch]

1 hour ago, connda said:

And anyway, many kids entering university don't have a clear idea what they want to do until they are over half way through the program.

I think you're being generous. Many Thais leave university in their mid-twenties and still don't have a clue what they're going to do!

[scorecard]

23 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Rest easy mate, elected visionary leaders will disappoint the people and be voted out. However non-elected that seized power.............refused to allow the people decide. 

Oh really... 

[NoMeAmes]

As a student at a private university in Bangkok, I have to say that both the quality of the students and the quality of the educators are lacking. You can clearly see the massive difference between Thai ajarns who were educated abroad, and Thai ajarns who have never gained education abroad. The narrow-mindedness. The lack of discipline. The lack of authority in a class. The lack of consistency. The involvement of emotions when grading. So frustrating. 

 

Actually, we've recently complained to our ajarn. We usually don't do this, but this one is really bad. No consistency, he could change his mind within 15 minutes, he makes up rules based on his emotions at that time and immediately sets them in motion, without giving us a warning. We get points for attendance, yet he never calls out our names nor is there a list for us to sign. How can he know who is who? I asked him what my friend's name is, ajarn couldn't answer. Anyway. We teamed up with a Thai guy and he really went ballistics on this ajarn. At some point, his eyes even teared up. When we foreigners complained, he constantly interrupted us and was always on the defensive mode. But when a Thai gives him the "f you" of his life, all he could do was sit there on the verge of tears. Literally. Ridiculous. 

 

Thai ajarns who have never had foreign education are too respect-demanding and emotion-driven, and often no authority. Thai ajarns who have had foreign education are reliable, respectable, logical, more systematical and practical and also more democratic. Much easier talking to them, and if you put decent effort in doing assignments, they also respect you and treat you as equals, not as children. 

[Mister Fixit]

10 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Thailand is a Kakistocracy with a non visionary non elected leader. 

New word for me - thanks very much!

And when referring to this place, a very apposite word too.  

Edited October 16, 2018 by Mister Fixit

[Lingba]

Education in Thailand doesn't exist and will never exist

They want their people stupid and uneducated to control them more

[quandow]

16 hours ago, AhFarangJa said:

+1 Richard. My wife is from Prasat, Surin, 12 miles from Cambodia, yet knows nothing about the Khmer Rouge and what they did.

A fellow educator teaches social studies. EVERY year he gives an exam question to draw a map of the world's continents. Almost every exam comes back with the students drawing a fairly accurate map of Thailand.

[GinBoy2]

Maybe the fact that education has in reality been broken for decades, yet educators are now having this discussion, might indicate a little of the root cause

[AlexRich]

18 hours ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

The Finland Plot?

 

I believe they have the best education system in Europe. And I think the kids begin school at 6 years old ... the problem is that Thailand don't have the ability to successfully replicate that model. Shame really. 

[stud858]

I've been a teacher in Thailand and I'm sure many of you have done the same. It's frustrating because improvement is possible 

 

Some problems are easily fixed and they are left broken. 

 

Can't see things getting better but only worse until a savior authority is born. 

[bbbbooboo]

hmmm.....ignorance is bliss, perhaps?

[ozmeldo]

There are about half dozen superb intl schools. Another half that are solid.

 

Same with Thai schools, have dozen good schools, another dozen decent schools. Perhaps 50 ok public schools total.

 

I realize that stating 50 schools in Thailand are at acceptable level given the funding but they can do it.

 

For all the discussion about schools, new vs old teachers (true everywhere). Teachers take jobs at X school because that's all their qualifications allow. Conversely, why would good teachers want to teach at bad schools? You wouldn't.

 

Thai teachers should be retired at 50. They're burned out and just coasting.

 

The trouble with bad teachers is that there are no replacements.

 

If you have a problem with your child's school, it's your problem. Change schools or move. While US schools do have some modicum of standards, you're always going to get a far better education in some areas than others.

 

Many families send their kids to Bangkok to study. So if you're not doing this, it's partially on you.

 

University system is also screwed up. Students need to enter professional school after HS. So, they could go abroad to study medicine, vet science, law, engineering there is no vehicle to reinject them into the system, no professional schools that would allow them to study for licensure and professional exams. So they must finish 5-7 years of crap education only to go abroad for grad school assuming they can even handle it.

 

The entire portfolio should be turned over to the teaching universities in Singapore and Hong Kong with US, UK and Finland.

Edited October 16, 2018 by ozmeldo

[Lunchbob]

Great article. They are at least talking out loud about the major problems, all of them, piled up sacks of rice no one wants to lift.

 

One thing all Asian countries have in common that solved this problem (and they all had this same problem at one point or another) is they gave foreign professors near equal or equal status as profs who could become, for example, deans or department heads or whatever. Agents of change that could not be stifled so easily. Right now many Thai profs are in fear for their jobs and they should be.

 

 

[Lunchbob]

Once I actually had to attend a large meeting of old Thai academics behind microphones in one of those heavily air conditioned rooms to defend and explain why I used letters instead of numbers for my records (the final grade was submitted as a number). It was a writing class.

 

One Thai acafraudnic asked me angrily, "can the letters be numbers"?

 

AAAHHHHHH!

[Stokakrishna]

How can anything be breaking down if it have never worked before??

 

[CanuckThai]

An interesting thread.

 

I'm not involved in the teaching profession.  Try to imagine, if you will, the same process and end results in various Thai engineering disciplines.  Wear your seat belt going over that bridge....and make sure you have a surge protector for your new TV....

[Fex Bluse]

54 minutes ago, CanuckThai said:

An interesting thread.

 

I'm not involved in the teaching profession.  Try to imagine, if you will, the same process and end results in various Thai engineering disciplines.  Wear your seat belt going over that bridge....and make sure you have a surge protector for your new TV....

Incompetence is the rule, rather than the exception, in Thailand. As a result, death waits for us in nearly all places at all times. The roads, the buildings, the elevators, the pesticide-laden crops, on and on. 

 

What I find most impressive of Thailand is that nearly everyone marches on nose high in the air in astonishingly impressive arrogance. More power to them.