Thai students well below global average in reading, science and maths: study

[webfact]

Thai students well below global average in reading, science and maths: study

 

File photo

 

A new study shows that Thai students are consistently underperforming in the classroom.

 

According to the 2018 OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) report ─ which measures the ability of 15-year-olds in science, reading and mathematics, Thai students scored below the international average in all three categories.

 

The study, which was conducted last year but release this week, involved 600,000 students from 79 countries and economies and is used as a benchmark to evaluate education systems around the world by measuring the basic skills and knowledge of 15 year old students.

 

In science, Thai students scored 426 points, well below the global average of 489.

 

In mathematics, Thai students scored 419, which was also below the average of 489.

 

In reading, Thailand’s worst performing category, Thai students managed just 393 points, while the global average was 487 points.

 

Thailand’s score for reading was the lowest since the country was included in the PISA study.

 

 

Overall, the scores meant that Thailand ranked 52nd for science, 66th for reading and 56th for mathematics.

 

Regionally, only Indonesia and the Philippines performed worse than Thailand. 

 

However, other ASEAN school systems including Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore all out performed Thailand.

 

Meanwhile, other Asian school systems featured heavily at the top of the rankings.

 

China was ranked in 1st place in all three categories, followed by Singapore, which ranked 2nd overall, Macao was in 3rd and Hong Kong in 4th.

 

In related news, education officials in Thailand this week announced plans to hire more foreign teachers in a bid to improve English language abilities of students in state schools nationwide.

 

From next year, students will take extra English speaking classes in order to try and improve the English speaking ability among Thai students from the current basic level to that of international standards.

 

No further information was released regarding where the new foreign teachers would be recruited from, but Thai officials indicated they plan to contact Phillippine Embassy in Bangkok to help with teacher recruitment.

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-12-05

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[Sticky Wicket]

All part of the masterplan

 

 

[cornishcarlos]

10 minutes ago, webfact said:

Regionally, only Indonesia and the Philippines performed worse

 

11 minutes ago, webfact said:

Thai officials indicated they plan to contact Phillippine Embassy in Bangkok to help with teacher recruitment

 

Is anyone else trying to see the logic in that ?? If you find any, please enlighten me ????

[HeyHeyHey]

16 minutes ago, webfact said:

 

China was ranked in 1st place in all three categories

China cheated their way to 1st place as they always do

 

I certainly don't see the intelligence when I happen to accidentally book a 4* or 5* hotel frequented by Chinese

[HeyHeyHey]

Philippines worse?

 

Everyone including the low level workers - ie gardener, house-keeper, or security guard speaks good English. I also never see the 80 year old gramma in middle of nowhere tiny shop using calculator to count 20+10

 

Thailand is as they want it to be. Hard to keep feudal system with educated public.

[mok199]

Yet they start at age 3....IMHO they spend all their time learning this LidicuRous  language....

[z42]

Absolutely dreadful. It is hard to pin the performance on 1 single factor, but in all my years as a teacher & teacher trainer i've never seen anything as ghastly as the "no fail" policy that is in force in LOS.

 

As for the plan to get Filipino teachers or barely qualified NES teachers to magically boost English to super high levels, it is doomed to failure as daily exposure to English language outside the main tourist areas is almost nil.

[shadowofacloud]

7 minutes ago, HeyHeyHey said:

Thailand is as they want it to be. Hard to keep feudal system with educated public.

 

Exactly. An educated society is definitely not what the powers that be want. Educated people tend to ask difficult questions about democracy, freedom of speech, corruption, pollution etc. Ignoramus masses will be easily satisfied by occassional handouts and cheap propaganda.

[Eligius]

It's so sad to see the deliberate and systematic (which is what it is - for decades) dumbing down of the Thai populace. So much potential there, so much early curiosity about the world (one sees it in very young Thai children) - squashed out of them, by design.

 

When you are not even allowed to ask (let alone answer) the most fundamental questions about the nature of your own country and its power structures - you are highly unlikely to be encouraged to unfold a critically questioning and analytical mind.

 

Poor, poor Thailand. Destined to sink ever further into deliberately cultivated ignorance.

And yet all the while there is a man waiting in the wings - suppressed Thanathorn - who could revolutionise Thailand in so many ways and inspire its entry into the 21st century (instead of its languishing in the 16th) ...

 

[Just1Voice]

But they are world class when it comes to playing video games on dad's computer or their mobiles. 

[Pilotman]

absolutely no surprise.  The teaching in the vast majority of Thai schools, at all levels and in places of supposed 'higher learning' is abysmal. 

[Isaanbiker]

How could they perform better in the classroom if they have way too many activities outside of the school?

 

 Too many Thai teachers give them homework because they're not able to teach it in class, knowing that most of them will copy if from a classmate.

 

 And if some Thai teachers believe that copying something off the board into their notebooks has anything to do with learning, they're so damn wrong.

 

 

You can't blame the students, it's the system that suc_s.  

[DavisH]

30 minutes ago, HeyHeyHey said:

Philippines worse?

 

Everyone including the low level workers - ie gardener, house-keeper, or security guard speaks good English. I also never see the 80 year old gramma in middle of nowhere tiny shop using calculator to count 20+10

 

Thailand is as they want it to be. Hard to keep feudal system with educated public.

Each country is tested in their own language, not English. 

[Golden Triangle]

I always read these threads with regard to the Thai education system (or lack of it) I have no input as I have no kids involved in the Thai education system, but it always surprises me that Rooster never gives any feedback, after all he has two lots of kids go through the system and has been a teacher as well.

 

It's always interesting to get the perspective of you lot out there using the system and from those doing their best to deliver a quality product but hampered by the system. Just my thoughts.

[scotinsiam]

You have to blame the system and the stupid teachers, Just saw a video of a male Thai teacher in Udonthani smacking a young Thai girl on the head very hard because she didn't hear what he said.

The kids have no chance with morons and bully's like this educating them.

I hope someone knocks him out very soon.

[kotsak]

"The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated."

 

[Misterwhisper]

Reading? Who needs reading when all you're supposed to do is grovel at the feet of the "puyai" and believe without questioning what they tell you.

 

Mathematics? Who needs to count when you're only supposed to do as you're ordered and the biggest event of the day is the morning roll call and swearing allegiance to the flag.

 

Science? Who needs science when you're forbidden to scrutinize, leave alone potentially shaping your own thoughts and criticize.

 

Thailand's educational system unfortunately is perfectly suited to achieve what it's supposed to achieve: maintaining and securing the continued status quo of a tiny class of feudal overlord families. 

[soalbundy]

several years ago I spoke with a well educated Thai woman (she had been to university) and we got onto Thai legends, oh yes she said they are just myths, like dinosaurs. When I looked at her in astonishment and said but dinosaurs used to exist you can see the fossiles in museums, she went bright red with embarrassment, yes of course, she said, I forgot.

[GalaxyMan]

Maybe the Thai teachers need to beat more students black & blue. I'm sure that will motivate them. ????

[PatOngo]

18 hours ago, z42 said:

As for the plan to get Filipino teachers or barely qualified NES teachers to magically boost English to super high levels, it is doomed to failure

Ahh, you can see the plan also.

[dcnx]

1 hour ago, HeyHeyHey said:

China cheated their way to 1st place as they always do

 

I certainly don't see the intelligence when I happen to accidentally book a 4* or 5* hotel frequented by Chinese

What you didn’t notice is who owns the hotel, the tour company, and all the locations the tour company takes them to.

 

Don’t confuse people with enough money to travel as being intelligent. Many of them are farmers who got rich because the government needed their land.

[ChipButty]

And they want to bring teachers from the Philippines I rest my case 

[Pilotman]

1 hour ago, kotsak said:

"The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated."

 

why is that a paradox?  Not sure who invented this quote, but it is meaningless. To be educated is to question, assess and seek to understand the World around you, that is the reason for being educated, therefore it's an inevitable objective and consequence of education, so not a paradox.

[HeyHeyHey]

10 minutes ago, dcnx said:

What you didn’t notice is who owns the hotel, the tour company, and all the locations the tour company takes them to.

 

Don’t confuse people with enough money to travel as being intelligent. Many of them are farmers who got rich because the government needed their land.

Thais, Filipino, Vietnamese don't like them.

 

In all the years I've been travelling I met one very nice Chinese guy. We had nice talk, he was very interested in knowing how it is in Europe etc. I helped him to book hotel - seems like China blocked Agoda?? On the other hand I've met hundreds of rude Chinese making hell out of my life. Smashing doors at 5am, screaming in the hallway is just common.

 

People say Aussies are drunks, British too, Americans are loud.... well I'm neither from these countries but when I travel I often meet people from these countries and they are fun and nice, many good memories. Sure they can get drunk and do silly stuff (as I surely do sometimes too) - but hey, it's supposed to be fun, not Sunday morning church, so why be so uptight?

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

Strange that Vietnam was not tested. They're usually pretty good in sciences and mathematics, plus a lot of them learn English. A Viet team ranked 7th out of 110 teams in the International Mathematics Olympiad held in the UK last July. I figure the Viets would rank in the top 25 at least in the PISA tests. 

 

https://vovworld.vn/en-US/spotlight/vietnam-wins-2-gold-4-silver-medals-at-intl-maths-olympiad-2019-768039.vov

 

But Philippines?  Really? Bottom of the pack in the PISA tests. 

[Yadon Toploy]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai officials indicated they plan to contact Phillippine Embassy in Bangkok to help with teacher recruitment.

Are they going to learn Tagalog?

[cooked]

Last week, as far as I can work out, my granddaughter's school abolished lessons and practised cheering, as in cheer leader. The whole week, really. On Friday she tells us she has to go to school on the Sunday, no idea what that was about until the Monday, when I realised that they had organised a foot race to be cheered at. On to Monday morning, she gets a Facebook message from her teacher at 7am, go to another place instead of the school. We do that, no idea what is going on, we saw the teacher and she didn't seem to know either. This week: SPORT, cheered on by those that practised cheering last week, apparently. AND: looks like she has to go to school on the 25th and 26th December for a 'camp'. Or something. So I can unorganise the festivities and reorganise them. 

How much gets learnt with this kind of time wasting and disorganisation? Last year we were going to meet up with visitors from Germany on the islands until it was decided at the last minute that that week would unusually be a school week.  

[Mavideol]

4 hours ago, z42 said:

Absolutely dreadful. It is hard to pin the performance on 1 single factor, but in all my years as a teacher & teacher trainer i've never seen anything as ghastly as the "no fail" policy that is in force in LOS.

 

As for the plan to get Filipino teachers or barely qualified NES teachers to magically boost English to super high levels, it is doomed to failure as daily exposure to English language outside the main tourist areas is almost nil.

Over the years here, I have met a lot of English teachers but NOT one from England did met 2-3 from the USA but the majority were from Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Russia and the huge majority from the Philippines, unfortunately couldn't keep a conversation with them as their conversational skills was extremely low and hard to understand (I am not a racist, just pointing out based on my experience)

[Yadon Toploy]

8 minutes ago, cooked said:

Last week, as far as I can work out, my granddaughter's school abolished lessons and practised cheering, as in cheer leader. The whole week, really. On Friday she tells us she has to go to school on the Sunday, no idea what that was about until the Monday, when I realised that they had organised a foot race to be cheered at. On to Monday morning, she gets a Facebook message from her teacher at 7am, go to another place instead of the school. We do that, no idea what is going on, we saw the teacher and she didn't seem to know either. This week: SPORT, cheered on by those that practised cheering last week, apparently. AND: looks like she has to go to school on the 25th and 26th December for a 'camp'. Or something. So I can unorganise the festivities and reorganise them. 

How much gets learnt with this kind of time wasting and disorganisation? Last year we were going to meet up with visitors from Germany on the islands until it was decided at the last minute that that week would unusually be a school week.  

 

Sounds much the same as at my work. The staff do nothing and most of them don't actually learn anything or care about self-improvement but demand pay rises, staff parties, outings, bonuses etc.

 

 

[Matzzon]

They really got us with this statistics! Who ever could have thought it was that bad? ????
 

4 hours ago, mok199 said:

Yet they start at age 3....IMHO they spend all their time learning this LidicuRous  language....

Yep start at 3, and according to the statistics a lot dumber at 16. Counting with the amount they should have been learning.