webfact Posted January 23, 2019 Share Posted January 23, 2019 Merge small schools to boost education quality: WB By THE NATION File photo THE WORLD BANK is continuing its call for Thailand to merge its small schools in order to improve education. “Our research has found clear evidence that teacher shortage is a key factor behind the educational-quality problems,” Dilaka Lathapipat, a human-development economist at the World Bank, told a seminar yesterday. “In order to best manage the existing pool of teachers, Thailand will need to reduce the number of small classrooms.” The seminar was organised by the Office of the Education Council to discuss the issues of inequalities and quality of education. Dilaka said research has found that despite boosting the budget for its education sector, Thailand had seen no improvement in students’ overall performance. “Educational gaps continue widening between the top 20-per-cent richest families and the 20-per-cent poorest families,” he said. According to him, Thailand’s spending in the sector has proved to be ineffective at small primary schools where the teacher-to-students ratio is at 17:1. “It is not possible to fill all classrooms at such small schools with teachers. So, the Office of Basic Education Commission should merge these schools,” he said. File photo Dilaka said the number of schools nationwide would drop from 35,506 to 17,766 following the proposed merger, and the number of classrooms would come down from 344,009 to 259,561. “This way, human-resource efficiency for the educational sector will increase,” he said, adding that this model will significantly boost Thailand’s educational-management efficiency. For instance, he said, the government’s expense for teachers’ salaries would be reduced by Bt49 billion a year. “This model, moreover, promises to increase educational quality and solve the shortage of teachers on a sustainable basis,” he said. Education Council’s secretary-general Supat Jampathong said the school-merging idea had been around for many years. “We have been taking action where possible, [but] for schools to be merged we have to take into account the response of communities involved as well as the laws,” he explained. Supat said he will forward the World Bank report along with the proposal for merging the schools to Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin for review. The seminar also heard from experts who argued for further decentralisation rather than a merging approach. Gerald W Fry, a lecturer at the US-based Minnesota University, told the seminar that Thailand should revolutionise its education sector to make effective changes. “I would like to recommend decentralisation and an area-based approach in improving educational quality,” he said. According to him, if school executives have the power to make decisions, they will be able to solve problems more efficiently as they know local context best. Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30362827 -- © Copyright The Nation 2019-01-24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Somtamnication Posted January 23, 2019 Share Posted January 23, 2019 Irrelevant; one of the most corrupt institutions in this country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fex Bluse Posted January 23, 2019 Share Posted January 23, 2019 1 hour ago, webfact said: “Our research has found clear evidence that teacher shortage is a key factor behind the educational-quality problems,” Dilaka Lathapipat, a human-development economist at the World Bank, told a seminar yesterday. “In order to best manage the existing pool of teachers, Thailand will need to reduce the number of small classrooms.” Fascinating that the World Bank is not talking about the poor quality of the teachers across all levels. Or, maybe the full report is being only partially reported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mok199 Posted January 23, 2019 Share Posted January 23, 2019 Despite an INCREASED BUDGET, the problem is clearly ''classroom size and shortage of teachers'' !! Again the innocent will suffer as the greedy corrupt fill their pockets...Disgusting Thailand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinneil Posted January 23, 2019 Share Posted January 23, 2019 What nonsense, small schools more teachers, fewer students, more time spent per child by the teacher. How on earth can merging schools help childrens education? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigeone Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 Quality of teachers and teaching methods as everyone knows is the real answer . Not happening anytime soon sadly . Overall mentality of those in charge and a historical backward outlook prevents any noticeable change . Very sad really as get the kids early enough and they would see a massive change in standards . Oh and remove the stigma of failure . All not much to ask right ?????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lungstib Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 Here in the far north we have 3 villages within 6 kms of highway. All with there own school. Each has a marching band, instruments and I assume other silent equipment, hopefully computers, needed for teaching. I can only guess that lack of transport, kids having to walk to school, caused this to happen. I can see how merging such small local schools would help but feel that funds lost to corruption would still be the problem. Along with the fact that getting kids with military haircuts, to march to military tunes, in military formation seems to be wasteful but considered essential. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesofa Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 37 minutes ago, colinneil said: What nonsense, small schools more teachers, fewer students, more time spent per child by the teacher. How on earth can merging schools help childrens education? Being cynical, I suggest it leaves more cash in education funds to allow a higher percentage of syphoning off. I don't know if in reality fewer students per class works here? The impression I always end up with is the teacher 'telling' the whole class about subjects. Do teachers tend to give time to individual students? You have more insight into this Colin, with your wife being in that line of work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinneil Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 13 minutes ago, bluesofa said: Being cynical, I suggest it leaves more cash in education funds to allow a higher percentage of syphoning off. I don't know if in reality fewer students per class works here? The impression I always end up with is the teacher 'telling' the whole class about subjects. Do teachers tend to give time to individual students? You have more insight into this Colin, with your wife being in that line of work. I can only speak about my wifes school, teachers are encouraged to give as much time as possible to individual children. No classes with 30-40 students, most classes 8-12 students, so teachers have more time to help the children. The main thing though is the quality of each teacher, and the teachers desire to help children to learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doremifasol Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 "For instance, he said, the government’s expense for teachers’ salaries would be reduced by Bt49 billion a year" So basically a teacher will get a classroom filled with 35 students but will not see any salary increment I see........ Overworked and underpaid. Teachers are on their feet, performing for a large class, one step ahead, improvising and making it work with what they have , anticipating and redirecting and instructing and reinforcing........and....and.....and. All -Day - Long. Then working overtime at home making lesson plans, worksheets, student's assessments, student's reports, observational tools.... and....and.....and. Teachers are exhausted. But what they already do is apparently not enough. Who thinks teaching is easy has never spoken to a teacher. World Bank and Education...... Right on our face...... What a joke...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesofa Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 13 minutes ago, colinneil said: I can only speak about my wifes school, teachers are encouraged to give as much time as possible to individual children. No classes with 30-40 students, most classes 8-12 students, so teachers have more time to help the children. The main thing though is the quality of each teacher, and the teachers desire to help children to learn. Well that does sound encouraging. The school my son attends in year M2, there are over thirty students in his class and that's a 'cheaper' private school in Udon. I just told my wife about the numbers per class in the school your wife oversees, and the first thing she asked was if they have any student places available, ha ha! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tifino Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 quality? - more like 'uniformity' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaltsc Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 “Our research has found clear evidence that teacher shortage is a key factor behind the educational-quality problems..." Most likely, if they conducted more in depth research, they would conclude that grossly under trained and under qualified teachers, along with a corrupt and outdated education system based on social status are behind the lack of most quality problems. I would add that low pay is also a factor in attracting more qualified students to prepare for an education profession, but if more money was added to the pool, most likely it would wind up in the hands of the higher ups, and the teacher would continue to receive their historical low pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesofa Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 5 minutes ago, jaltsc said: “Our research has found clear evidence that teacher shortage is a key factor behind the educational-quality problems,” Their specialist subject: Stating the bleedin' obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasset Tak Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 Yeah, there is no way to keep all these small schools! Sure, there are remote villages that need to keep their schools as it's too far to the next school, but when every little village with a few kilometers between them have their own school, then it's just wasting resources. I went for an English camp in a primary school (government), they had hired 3 foreign teachers for the event... they had a total of 27 students/children from the ages 4-11 in that school! To keep that school running they had 1 school director, 1 office clerk, 6 teachers and the rest of the support personnel needed to run the school!? On the other hand I have also been in large schools where they didn't have enough teachers so the classes were between 50-80 students! So, what is needed is to find a balance because keeping the schools open in every little village is just not working for a sustainable future! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katipo Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 Teacher shortage because teachers are not paid enough. Why are they not paid enough? Because Thailand, which invests 4% of it's GDP (higher than any other country in the world) siphons off, depending on who you ask, between 40-60% of the funds to go high ranking education and district officials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krataiboy Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 6 hours ago, colinneil said: What nonsense, small schools more teachers, fewer students, more time spent per child by the teacher. How on earth can merging schools help childrens education? It can't, but it's a tempting idea prospect, as it would save the government money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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