Bilingual schooling planned to boost English proficiency

By The Nation

 

Nataphol Teepsuwan

 

Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan said on Friday (November 8 ) that a bilingual curriculum – in Thai and English – would be in place from kindergarten up at more than 2,000 district schools starting in academic year 2020.

 

The aim is to develop children’s language skills so the country can be more competitive in international fields, he said.

 

Nataphol noted that representatives of other nations and the International Monetary Fund at the just-ended Asean Summit in Bangkok said Thailand had the potential to develop further substantially, but it needed, among other improvements, better education management.

 

“The ministry is currently developing a plan to resolve the issue and hopes it will be able to meet the needs of the labour market, while the country has to prepare for the rise in investment resulting from opening up in the future,” said Nataphol.

 

He said 2,000 district schools initially would have to provide bilingual lessons in the first semester of 2020.

 

“We have already prepared the budget to support the programme through to 2021,” he said.

 

The Office of the Vocational Education Commission will meanwhile establish a centre where students can be trained to global standards in specific fields.

 

The English Proficiency Index puts Thailand 74th in the world following declines for three consecutive years. It’s marked as having “very low proficiency”.

 

The compilers of the index found Thais in the North and Central region have better English skills than those in the Northeast and South. 

 

Bangkokians ranked highest for English proficiency, followed by residents of Nonthaburi, Chiang Mai, Chon Buri and Khon Kaen.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30378184

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-11-08

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Where will they get the teachers?

too late, better off teaching Chinese or Hindi,

Hope they do better than some of these private schools I've got grand kids that go to a school that advertises English in all classes and there's a sign when you drive in that says English only . They can barely hold a conversation

14 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

Where will they get the teachers?

On the Subcontinent obviously, there there are as many English speakers as in the rest of the World.

34 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

Where will they get the teachers?

From non-native speaking countries, just as, for the most part, they do now.

49 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

Where will they get the teachers?

They can't afford it if they have to pay health insurance.

33 minutes ago, Slip said:

From non-native speaking countries, just as, for the most part, they do now.

Which has, so far, proved so successful.

 "...a bilingual curriculum – in Thai and English – would be in place from kindergarten up at more than 2,000 district schools starting in academic year 2020."

 

If this prediction is as accurate as the decline in road fatalities, the students' English vocabulary will now be doubled by adding "gooooodbye" to "hallo". Perhaps they should combine English with sex education, since the most proficient English speakers appear to be school dropouts working in bars. 

4 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

Which has, so far, proved so successful.

In fairness it is only in the last 5-10 years that the the native speakers have been squeezed out.  I'm not sure it was working that well back then either.  Those were the days that any Tom, Dick or Harry could work as a teacher just because they were white.  SSDD.

2 minutes ago, Slip said:

In fairness it is only in the last 5-10 years that the the native speakers have been squeezed out.  I'm not sure it was working that well back then either.  Those were the days that any Tom, Dick or Harry could work as a teacher just because they were white.  SSDD.

I am not making the assumption that the poor results to date have been due to the quality of the teachers, but an expansion of the English teaching program of this size is going to require a lot of additional manpower.  The first step would be to devise a recruitment plan.  Perhaps they have one, but since the article didn't mention it, I have my doubts.

If it were only that simple....

54 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

I am not making the assumption that the poor results to date have been due to the quality of the teachers, but an expansion of the English teaching program of this size is going to require a lot of additional manpower.  The first step would be to devise a recruitment plan.  Perhaps they have one, but since the article didn't mention it, I have my doubts.

I am suggesting that as the country is already awash with Filipino teachers it could be achieved with a little extra investment.

 

I agree entirely that the chances of such a plan existing are less than high.

EDIT: And apologies cmarshall.  I had not specifically mentioned that example, which was kind of central to my point.

 

 

Pretty sure I read about 4 years ago the govt did a survey of all Thais teaching English and found only a handful were actually fluent in it, many cannot actually speak it at all. Just a guess but that might be a bit of the problem.

8 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

 

Pretty sure I read about 4 years ago the govt did a survey of all Thais teaching English and found only a handful were actually fluent in it, many cannot actually speak it at all. Just a guess but that might be a bit of the problem.

 

Not true. My classmates competed with native English teachers who had years of experience teaching English in Thailand.

 

One position had many applications. There is an oversupply of native English speakers, most of them doing those short TEFL courses.

Like most things in Thailand - a day late and a dollar short. Fail.

 

I did, however, enjoy the extremely polite slap to the head...

 

"Nataphol noted that representatives of other nations and the International Monetary Fund at the just-ended Asean Summit in Bangkok said Thailand had the potential to develop further substantially, but it needed, among other improvements, better education management."

 

...because when I got school report cards similar to this, that's what I got.

8 minutes ago, EricTh said:

 

Not true. My classmates competed with native English teachers who had years of experience teaching English in Thailand.

 

One position had many applications. There is an oversupply of native English speakers, most of them doing those short TEFL courses.

This survey of 400 done in association with Cambridge Uni seem to have come up with a different view in 2013

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1078705.pdf

 

As for Thailand (Education in Thailand, Wikipedia), a survey, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, measuring the qualifications of four hundred Thai teachers of English, found that a full 60% of them had knowledge of English and teaching methodologies below that of the syllabus level at which they were teaching. Of the remaining top 40%, only 3% had a reasonable level of fluency

Years ago I have been with my wife at a party in Amnat Charoen, deepest Esaan. I Thai talked to me. After 10 minutes I realized that he spoke English with me. At the end of the evening my wife told me, that he is the English teacher at the public school.

 

Last year I chatted with a girl from Bangkok. Her English was not bad, but worse than mine - and my is far away from perfect. Later she wrote me that she is an English teacher.

 

And these two want to teach children a proper English? Laughable. 

6 minutes ago, EricTh said:

 

Not true. My classmates competed with native English teachers who had years of experience teaching English in Thailand.

 

One position had many applications. There is an oversupply of native English speakers, most of them doing those short TEFL courses.

This is entirely contrary to everything I have come to understand.  For example 15 years ago my school had 13 or 14 foreign teachers- 12 were NES.  Now they have 21- 6 are NES.  Is it not more a lack of 'qualified' native English speakers?

"better education management" that phrase in itself highlights the situation.

 

To better something would imply you actual have some starting foundation.

 

You don't have to spend much time near any "education" system here to realise they have a very, very different concept of it.

4 hours ago, cmarshall said:

Where will they get the teachers?

This is just more hot air about education reform in Thailand. It's a typical knee-jerk reaction to the latest figures showing that Thailand is continuing to slip further down the international standards ladder toward bottom ranking. They won't need teachers proficient with English language teaching because nothing will actually happen.  

 

6 hours ago, cmarshall said:

Where will they get the teachers?

From Thailand! Bangkok, Buriram, Sisaket, they'll find them in every province. What makes anyone think they will use "foreign" teachers? Would that not be an admission that they are incapable? The status quo will be maintained!

 

 

Even though Malaysia is in the High English Proficiency group, the command of English in Malaysia has been dropping. I think the reason for this was because of the decision many years ago to exclude the English language from the list of mandatory subjects that must be passed in order to get a SPM (GCE 'O' Levels) certificate. 

The decision was a political one because many ethnic Malays (Muslims) have poorer command of English than the ethnic Chinese and Indians. But that decision had made the situation worse because many ethnic Malays felt that they didn't need to bother about passing and the government knew about the mistake because many ethnic Malays have problems getting jobs because of their poor English. The Malaysian government has been dragging its feet as to when the decision should be reversed.

What Thailand can learn from this is that it may consider imposing the passing of an international English test in order to enrol in universities or to join the civil service. But I believe such a decision is a very difficult one to make.

8 hours ago, Slip said:

This is entirely contrary to everything I have come to understand.  For example 15 years ago my school had 13 or 14 foreign teachers- 12 were NES.  Now they have 21- 6 are NES.  Is it not more a lack of 'qualified' native English speakers?

It seems that the private schools in Thailand have been churning out TEFL teachers from USA, UK, Canada etc and they don't seem to be able to get a job.

 

Maybe the city center has an oversupply of native speakers while the rural area is lacking them because most foreigners don't like to live in a rural area.

 

I can only say from my experience in the big city center and not elsewhere.

One point that the esteemed Minister misses here is that in an education system with a largely "no fail" grading system, there is no incentive for kids to apply themselves to the task of fully learning a second language. All they need to know is enough English for gaming purposes!

Before they change the program they should change the law or the way that it is administered.  The problem is not so much with the education classes most NES teachers are quirte good.  It is with the automatic pass that semi private schools have.

If they mandated national tests after pratom 3, with the marks promulgated in a Thai newspaper, on line that each school averaged it would make a great deal of difference on the education that is provided to schools.

 

Imagine if a school that rates itself as one of the best had to actually prove it and show it.

Also have a carrot and stick if your school is top 10 or has the highest improvement in marking then you get more money from the government BUT if you are in the bottom 10 you lose all government funding.

10 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

 

Pretty sure I read about 4 years ago the govt did a survey of all Thais teaching English and found only a handful were actually fluent in it, many cannot actually speak it at all. Just a guess but that might be a bit of the problem.

I visited a Surin school at the request of the headteacher.  (He had heard I was an ex-teacher with 39 ears experience in UK.)  He had no English; I had little Thai so he sent for his Head of English.  He introduced himself; 'Me number 1 Angrit teach in sacoon.'

AND the winning "thought bubble" of the day goes to.........[drum roll], the Education minister

!

12 hours ago, cmarshall said:

Where will they get the teachers?

It is are not being nown

I pay around 50K a year for my 6 year old to have english, math, science taught in english by a non-asian teacher.  It started off well as the teacher was english with a teaching background.  Inevitably the school p1ssed him off and he left (along with another english guy).  They were replaced by Russians...... Their english is terrible and I am constantly correcting bad pronunciation.  I will be pulling him out next year and putting him back in the main stream.  If this is the standard I get a paying at a good school, I can only imagine what government schools with limited budgets will get.