Spend more on the schools – and more wisely [Opinion]

[webfact]

Spend more on the schools – and more wisely

By The Nation

 

 

Thailand will be in a precarious position if the educational system isn’t greatly improved soon

 

Every Thai government arrives behind a pledge to lay a solid foundation for improving the educational system so that young people can meet the shifting challenges of the modern world. In most cases, however, the politicians are squeamish about tackling this admittedly daunting task and instead are focused on the enormous Education Ministry budget, third in scale only to those of the Defence and Interior ministries.

 

What is plainly lacking is the necessary political will to overhaul the entire system – from teaching methods to teacher selection. Schools meanwhile are saddled with too many teachers for whom teaching college was the imperative choice once their universities of choice spurned their applications. 

 

Without the strong foundation that is forever being promised and yet never materialising, Thailand faces a grim future. At worst we will experience economic disaster, at best a suffocating blanket of mediocrity. 

 

It is not as though we the recipe for a good education completely eludes us. We do have excellent educators and commendable schools, and students at every level have excelled in international academic competitions overseas. Unfortunately these are the exceptions rather than the rule. 

 

And too often, as well, a good education is reserved for students from moneyed families. The politicians who talk about moving the nation forward through better education seem to forget the fact that society can walk only as fast as its slowest member. Access to a good education should be regarded as a birthright, not a privilege. Every school should be nurturing competitive students – and that means having the financial wherewithal to hire the best teachers. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure they have it. 

 

The current mindset will be hard to overcome. Many educators admit that our teaching system is teetering on the brink of breakdown because budgets are misspent. The most worrying immediate result is that our teachers are themselves poorly taught. A participant at the recent First Thai Teacher Education Forum lamented that stinginess about recruiting talented teachers meant low-quality candidates dominated the classrooms. “Frankly, we recruit every applicant these days,” said the lecturer at a Rajabhat university. “Forget about recruiting only those with the talent and determination to serve well as teachers.”

 

The officials charged with dividing up the budgets are instead too concerned about student numbers. Some institutions recruit more teachers than they need in the hope of a larger slice of the budget pie, ignoring the likely negative impact on the quality of their graduates.

 

It is widely believed that the quality of teachers determines the quality of the students they train. The reality is not so straightforward. Thailand’s teacher training institutes are inadvertently being discouraged from embracing modern developments in teaching and the classrooms and from appreciating the relevance of teachers in the context of the country and the world.

 

Hannele Niemi, a professor of educational sciences at Helsinki University in Finland, said teaching colleges tend to follow without question whatever rules the authorities decree. “We are like foremen,” he said. “We have not played a role in designing the rules or the criteria for teacher production.”

 

A sound beginning would be to make the teaching profession more appealing by offering better pay. 

 

If a tax hike is necessary to finance this, then so be it, but our feeling is that the money is already in government coffers.

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/opinion/30356666

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-10-18

[Rhys]

Ngahh.... it will only line pockets of the corrupt, and a few baht will reach the students....

[Samui Bodoh]

The only way there will be meaningful reform of the Ministry of Education is if you begin with a flame-thrower. Burn it all to the ground, fire ALL the top people there, and start over.

 

Does Thailand have the political/societal will to properly implement the necessary reform(s)? I doubt it.

 

Short of drastic, immediate, wide-ranging reforms, Thailand's educational future is to watch its peers pass it by on their way to prosperity...

 

... and they'll laugh at Thailand's eternal place as a third-world outpost with nice beaches.

 

[zzaa09]

It amounts to one step forward and two steps back.

[quandow]

For crying out loud, just eliminate the ridiculous "All Pass System" and students will suddenly HAVE to perform. It's a stupid cultural deal that classes have to remain consistent from KG to grade 12. Sure, the kids kept back will lose face, but isn't that the necessary pressure needed to ensure their performance? Christ, I remember a kid in my 4th grade class got held back, and he needed to be. Well guess what? The world STILL turns, he went on and eventually graduated, and the REST of us learned a VERY important lesson!

[JAG]

Corruption is like "bindweed". It's tentacles wind their way everywhere about the plant it attaches itself too, suffocating it.

 

Corruption is the bindweed on the tree which is Thai education.

 

If you ever need an example of the ruinous harm corruption does to any institution look no further than the Ministry of Education. It drains the life from it, from top to bottom.

[Snow Leopard]

It's not only a Thai problem, is it? 

[Orton Rd]

Teaching College due to Universities rejecting them? I thought all teachers had University degrees here, not that they mean much anyway.

 

' Schools meanwhile are saddled with too many teachers for whom teaching college was the imperative choice once their universities of choice spurned their applications'

[SoilSpoil]

20 minutes ago, Snow Leopard said:

It's not only a Thai problem, is it? 

Seen the % of the GDP invested in education, you would be inclined to say it is.

[Snow Leopard]

4 minutes ago, SoilSpoil said:

Seen the % of the GDP invested in education, you would be inclined to say it is.

How much is that then?

[scorecard]

Yes education is a mess and is very crappy, but don't blame it on the budget.

 

As is well known education already gets a very large budget allocation and has done for decades and look round many schools and you'll see they are close to falling down and a list of needed maintenance as long as your arm and more, toilets not repaired for decades and more.

 

Example, 5 years back a total renovation project started on the 24 toilet blocks in my uni building (every toilet room has about 6 urinals and 6 small sit down cubicles or equivalent. Without warning all the toilets were locked and nothing happened for about 5 months. No arrangements made for alternatives etc.

 

Then the work started and stopped and restarted, took nearly 2 years to complete the renovation and within a few days many of the toilets unusable because of blockages (turns out there was no work whatever stated in the contract scope to ensure it all worked). Today some toilet rooms are locked, many have 1 urinal and 1 cubicle in working order.

 

Today the internal plumbing, cubicle doors and walls are falling apart, and it's been revealed that there was zero monitoring of the work quality and no inspection whatever before the contractor was paid in full. Massive waste of money and sometime in the near future it will have to be done again, another big budget.

 

Meantime the students get issued with very poor quality photocopy versions of textbooks with many pages unreadable and the gossip is that the students pay more for the photocopy version than buying an original book, and they are forbidden to have original books. And the photocopy books arrive from 1 day to 3 months after the course has started. Nobody complains because they are frightened of the unit that prints the photocopy books. Wrong, wrong and wrong and somewhere in this picture massive budget money is 'lost'.

 

Yes there is a dire and urgent need to totally change the management of budgets and install a new continuous audit activity, hopefully operated by a body outside of the ministry.

 

None of the above connects directly to poor quality academic results so don't blame crappy education on budgets. 

 

[1duckyboy]

Educated masses is the downfall of any undemocratic, unaccuontable government other than a theocracy. Keep them ignorant and they can be led like sheep. Educate them and they will start thinking. The status quo is beneficial to the powers that be, anything else is lip service. IMO

[Srikcir]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Spend more on the schools – and more wisely

NO!

Thailand ranks 47th place among 76 countries in global education standard survey.

http://www.samuitimes.com/thailand-ranks-47th-place-among-76-countries-in-global-education-standard-survey/

Among ASEAN countries, Singapore came the 1st place, Vietnam 12th; United Kingdom 20th; United States 28th.

And yet,

 

From Thailand leads the world in education spending, but with little results; some solutions exist

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Thailand-leads-the-world-in-education-spending,-but-with-little-results%3B-some-solutions-exist-36851.html

Thailand is second to none in terms of education spending (4% of GDP, 20% of the government budget) but ranks at the bottom for quality of education, this according to Supachai Panitchpakdi, a former World Trade Organization director general.

“It is hard to find one single reason. There are a number of factors that suggest that increased spending will not translated in better results.” (my bold emphasis)

“Poor education policies and practices leave many countries in what amounts to a permanent state of economic recession.”

For Thailand that translates into a permanent state of income inequality!

 

Not touched upon in the article is the CORRUPTION in Thailand education system.

From Corrupt problems in the Thai education system (begin pg 72):

Thailand is in a period of globalization, but the essence of the culture and traditions still remain the same. The new generation has been trained by those who still preserve the values of ancient Thai society (Noisuwan, 2005). Merit-based professional relationships developed in western society, but Thailand has retained a spoil system in the form of a patron-client relationship.

http://apheit.bu.ac.th/jounal/Inter-1-2559/p66-76-Yuvares-Ludpa.pdf

 

One need only to recall as evidence Education ministry to integrate junta’s 12 Thai values into education curriculum : Suthasri Wongsaman, Permanent-Secretary of the Education Ministry - the Ministry had already started revising history and civic duties in order to make students learn about the duty of Thais, discipline, morality and patriotism. https://prachatai.com/english/node/4215

How's that for a quality education system that will enable Thai students to compete globally!

 

Also not addressed in the article is the need for reform of the entire education system.

• Decentralizing the education system with give regional authorities the power to implement modern 21st century initiatives and adapt teaching and learning to meet the needs of their students.
• Transferring decision-making authority closer to the teachers and learners will also increase accountability,  which often results in improved efficiency and improvements in academic attainment.
• Reform the country’s national assessments to provide essential data to improve education, evaluate teaching practices, inform policy makers and help individual learners improve.

https://www.studyinternational.com/news/thailand-education-reforms-elusive-ever/

 

 

 

 

 

[Chris Lawrence]

Send where the rich kids go. May be cheaper?

[rwill]

What is sad is that you have to pay for your children to go to school from elementary level on up. 

[Katipo]

7 hours ago, Rhys said:

Ngahh.... it will only line pockets of the corrupt, and a few baht will reach the students....

Exactly. Wouldn't need to spend more if only the current expenditure was actually used for what it was meant. Same goes for pretty much goes for any public service actually.

[Pedrogaz]

Why does your plan tell you to spend more without having diagnosed what the problems are. This is not planning it is empire building. 

1) Diagnose the problem....many in the case of Thai schools but infrastructure seems to be ok.

2) Craft a solution

3) Cost out the solution, calculate the return and then apply for the money.

 

Do not ask for the money and then figure out how to spend it.....it will be swallowed up by corruption and spent on poor return investments....like native English speakers from Kenya who have never taught anything in their lives let alone English.

 

[SoilSpoil]

Without law enforcement and policing, the quality of education will never increase. The complete system, from teachers, school directors all the way up to the authorities seems corrupt. Want your kid in a school? Write your 'donation' on a small piece of paper. More than 6 digits necessary. How about teachers telling the parents that extra classes are needed after school? And the biggest scam of them all is the grading system, a pass for every student. I had to make the exams so easy to get that done and even then, and with pain in the heart, I had to up the grades. Dont tell the parents and dont show them the tests is what the director told me. Needless to say we are homeschooling our kids next year, as I can't afford (and dont want to) to put 2 kids through an international school. Put them through the Thai system equals to wasting their youth with a totally useless emphasis on prancing and dancing and rote memorization of moral codes and so on .... Beyond repair and the problems are not exclusive to the education sector,  but society wide.

[connda]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Spend more on the schools

Lipstick on a pig comes to mind.

 

9 hours ago, webfact said:

and more wisely

Translated:  Limit the number of corrupt officials that funds are diverted to and spend the rest on a high-octane public relations agency to tout the wonders of the 'New and Improved Thai Educational System' that is the old system -- with lipstick. 

[scorecard]

8 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

The only way there will be meaningful reform of the Ministry of Education is if you begin with a flame-thrower. Burn it all to the ground, fire ALL the top people there, and start over.

 

Does Thailand have the political/societal will to properly implement the necessary reform(s)? I doubt it.

 

Short of drastic, immediate, wide-ranging reforms, Thailand's educational future is to watch its peers pass it by on their way to prosperity...

 

... and they'll laugh at Thailand's eternal place as a third-world outpost with nice beaches.

 

 

 

"fire ALL the top people there, and start over. ..."

 

Agree, but only if the top people are replaced by folks from different backgrounds / different ministries etc.

 

IMHO firing the top 5 level and then moving the next five levels up would achieve nothing, the next 5 levels will just keep it rolling exactly as before, and especially if they have received automatic promotions for long service or through nepotism regardless of proven capabilities and proven high and valuable performance, and there's a good chance 99% of them are incapable (and not interested in) new innovations, different conceptual approaches etc.  

 

 

[fullcave]

21 hours ago, rwill said:

What is sad is that you have to pay for your children to go to school from elementary level on up. 

Yes and so expensive!