Primary schools to start teaching coding: deputy education minister

[webfact]

Primary schools to start teaching coding: deputy education minister

By The Nation

 

Kalaya Sophonpanic

 

Many of the public primary schools will start teaching coding in the second semester of the current school year, Deputy Education Minister Kalaya Sophonpanic said.

 

She said the Education Ministry will not force some 30,000 schools nationwide to teach coding but would allow and support the schools to teach coding of computer programs to first, second and third graders on a voluntary basis.

 

Kalalay said the Education Ministry will hold a press conference on Friday to officially announce the school coding project.

 

During the press conference, computer programming experts would explain the project.

 

After the project is officially launched, the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology (IPTST) will research which schools want to teach coding.

 

“Those schools that are not ready, do not have to apply to join the programme. This is because it will require human resources, money and time and determination to make the project successful,” Kalaya said.

 

For the initial phase, she wants the IPTST to train some 1,000 teachers to teach coding to younger pupils. They would later be deployed to the those of the country’s 30,000 schools that are ready to carry out the project.

 

“When the second semester starts, the teaching can begin,” Kalaya said.

 

Kalaya has also been assigned to supervise the National Institute of Educational Testing Service Plc (NIETS), and has already received reports from the agency’s exectives about i operations.

 

She said she has yet to visit the agency and listen to its perspective before making decisions related to complaints about certain testing systems used by NIETS.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30374210

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-08-05

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[RotBenz8888]

While English teaching is top-notch and need no further improvement.

[ZeVonderBearz]

1,000 teachers for 30,000 schools, so just 30 schools per teacher, sounds doable. As long as it doesn't eat into the daily propaganda/brain washing times at any of the schools then it should work.

[PhilippBKK]

Nation of future hackers

[csmith]

It's a pity it is called 'coding' as most just think of languages that would be unsuitable for this young age .… it would be more helpful if it was just thought of as 'problem solving' and 'collaborative group work'.  There are now many Apps suitable for this task at this age .… and fun.

I'll screenshot some from my iPad in the next post.

[csmith]

[Cadbury]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Deputy Education Minister Kalaya Sophonpanic

Born 21/09/1940 which makes her getting on for 80. Still looking pretty good for her age if the photo is current which I am guessing it is.

The average 80 year old Thai women I see getting about don't look any thing like that. She even looks better than some 30 year old's I've seen around. 

She has a very impressive CV which is worth a read.

https://www.mhesi.go.th/main/th/34-news/news-gov/54-curriculum-vitae-dr-khunying-kalaya-sophonpanich

 

 

[Isaanbiker]

So kids will soon be hacking the CIA, the FBI and Prayuth's email address. Their English skills are exceptional, methinks.

 

   Thai kids at primary schools, the software developer of the future. 

 

     Great news that made me laugh a lot. 

 

  

 

   

 

  

[Saltire]

Coincidence? 

 

https://interestingengineering.com/full-sized-commodore-64-is-coming-back-this-december

 

[ramr]

In the Thai system, the teaching will probably follow the same principle as memorizing grammar tables for learning English.  All theory, no problem-solving or application.

 

Good coders need to be both highly creative and analytical... A small percentage of people around the world have the suitable neurotype for this.

 

So rotsa ruck.  Hope I'm wrong.

 

P.S.  Not that these would be bad skills to have as a non career coder in the 21st century, mind you.  But any benefit will be more than cancelled out by the corruption and waste involved in the implementation.  Especially on such short notice.

Edited August 5, 2019 by ramr

[Fex Bluse]

35 minutes ago, Cadbury said:

Born 21/09/1940 which makes her getting on for 80. Still looking pretty good for her age if the photo is current which I am guessing it is.

The average 80 year old Thai women I see getting about don't look any thing like that. She even looks better than some 30 year old's I've seen around. 

She has a very impressive CV which is worth a read.

https://www.mhesi.go.th/main/th/34-news/news-gov/54-curriculum-vitae-dr-khunying-kalaya-sophonpanich

 

 

Yeah, was probably a stunner a few decades ago. 

 

However, I'm not sure about her plan. 

[DrTuner]

if(Thai==true) fail();

[Fex Bluse]

10 minutes ago, ramr said:

In the Thai system, the teaching will probably follow the same principle as memorizing grammar tables for learning English.  All theory, no problem-solving or application.

 

Good coders need to be both highly creative and analytical... A small percentage of people around the world have the suitable neurotype for this.

 

So rotsa ruck.  Hope I'm wrong.

I think it is very unlikely this agenda will be successful. 

 

Their most likely achievement will be a miniscule percentage of exceptional kids who are competitive while the other 99.9% play around the edges doing the most basic development work possible. 

 

What the old dinosaurs in the government probably don't understand is that competive development is home to VERY smart people. These "coders" or engineers are often among the smartest people in any room. 

 

The Thais likely think they are same kids that roam around the technical schools assaulting each other... 

[DrTuner]

It's fairly telling the salaries for mid level managers are higher than programmers in Thailand. A good software developer should easily pull in six figures in USD, anywhere. Peanuts & monkeys. 

[BobbyL]

I would put money on this idea dying out fairly quickly. Not because it is a bad idea, but there will most likely be no succinct plan for it. 

 

I teach coding now in my ICT lessons if it links in with the topics we are covering and I have done the same in England when I was teaching there. There are clear frameworks and plans to follow (Rising Stars, Switched On, ilearn2) which make it easier for us as teachers to then guide the students. I am by no means an expert at all! 

 

The huge problem faced here is that all those resources link to apps and computer software in English. Therefore, unless she plans to revamp it all into Thai and then release their own apps and computer software it will extremely hard / almost impossible. I work in an international school and have had primary aged students in my class struggle with certain coding tools we've used (Scratch, Hopscotch, Kodable) because of the language that is used within them. These are students with generally a high level of English. 

 

God knows how your average Thai teacher and Thai student will be able to effectively follow it.  

[brain150]

I wonder why people like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs don't [didn't] allow their own kids to use computers ...

 

It might also be a good idea to teach children to read and write with a pen before they learn to use a keyboard.

Or maybe even teach them to talk ... ups, forget about it - talking is a thing of the past anyway.

 

It's going to be a dark future with only human resources and no more human beings.

Sad times we live it. The dark ages are coming back ... this time on a dark screen.

[Cake Monster]

4 hours ago, RotBenz8888 said:

While English teaching is top-notch and need no further improvement.

I know nothing at all about Coding, but my Daughter mentioned the other week,that Coding was performed in only English.

Is this correct ? 

[ThaiFelix]

I remember when I was teaching kindergarten for a school (part of large chain) in Bangkok and they introduced script writing......yes that old style fancy English "running" writing.  I remember thinking "what??"  As English teacher I was struggling to teach simple printing...and they want to introduce script writing?? 

 

Well no student ever saw those script writing books , they sat on the assistants' desks at the back all semester where the assistant completed them every day, marked them and name stamped them and handed them to each parent at the end of term. 

 

Funny thing was I never heard one parent query why their child couldnt write like they could in this book.

[Andycoops]

I thought for a moment it was April the 1st.

[Pedrogaz]

I don't know much about coding, but when I was at university doing Maths in 1974, we did some computer programming courses....in Basic and 4Tran. 20 years later these languages were not even around anymore. 

Before wasting money on this, do a survey to see that whatever coding is taught will be applicable when the children become adults.

[davehowden]

Teach them how to swim as well whilst your at it ?

 

[davehowden]

13 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

I don't know much about coding, but when I was at university doing Maths in 1974, we did some computer programming courses....in Basic and 4Tran. 20 years later these languages were not even around anymore. 

Before wasting money on this, do a survey to see that whatever coding is taught will be applicable when the children become adults.

And who would know what computer languages will be current in say 15 years time ? Better to teach them flow charting so they can grasp the principles of logical thinking.

[Is this real]

Sure.  Who needs English, anyway?

[Fred white]

6 hours ago, RotBenz8888 said:

While English teaching is top-notch and need no further improvement.

Some kids we know go to one of these schools that claim to use English all day in every class they even have a sign saying to speak English only but the kids still can't carry on a simple conversation

[jaltsc]

"Many of the public primary schools will start teaching coding..."

 

It's a good thing they've trained the schools to do the teaching, because they surely haven't taught enough teachers to do the job. It should take no time at all before the student's coding ability catches up to their English proficiency. 

 

 

Edited August 5, 2019 by jaltsc

[PerkinsCuthbert]

6 hours ago, Isaanbiker said:

So kids will soon be hacking the CIA, the FBI and Prayuth's email address. Their English skills are exceptional, methinks.

 

   Thai kids at primary schools, the software developer of the future. 

 

     Great news that made me laugh a lot. 

 

  

 

   

 

  

I believe the plan is for them to develop a workable app and website for Thai immigration - by 2050.

[ratcatcher]

Sophonpanich = Bangkok Bank. Pillars of the Bangkok community.

[dinsdale]

I doesn't take long for the idiots to show their face. Coding for primary school students. Just rediculous. Thought bubble policy.

[StayinThailand2much]

17 hours ago, RotBenz8888 said:

While English teaching is top-notch and need no further improvement.

Not to mention all other subjects...

[unamazedloso]

What a load of rubbish!! My son is in grade 3 and his level of education is lacking. My wife especially has to sit with him daily to do what the teachers arent doing. My son is top % of the class but can barely read yet.

Why in hell will they need to code? I learnt a bit in high school when computers just came out and taught myself a bit after the school years and have many programmers in my family who i talked to about this and they all agree this is government lunacy in the hopes of creating future hackers. Little do they know hacking doesnt necessarily need coding ability at all anymore. Most hacking is done with fake emails, fake imitating sites and such. You can download many ready made codes for use in websites where codes can be used. Any web designer can do it and now with diy site makers no one even needs to learn code at all to still make sites and paste in code.

Thats fact!