Three pronged attack! EEC master plan to improve English and revolutionize curriculum

[webfact]

Three pronged attack! EEC master plan to improve English and revolutionize curriculum

 

Picture: Thai Rath

 

Suvit Maesincee - the higher education, science, research and innovation minister - has promised widespread reform of education curricula as part of the drive known as the EEC (eastern economic corridor) on Thailand's eastern seaboard.

 

English language will be delivered through technical subjects in what is called "Content Language Integrated Learning". 

 

Thai Rath suggested it would speed up learning and be economically sustainable. 

 

No mention was made of hiring any foreign teachers in the story, notes Thaivisa, following other stories in the media about English. 

 

Suvit had been at a meeting where the buzzwords were "Demand Driven" and "EEC Model". 

 

He promised that 120 bachelor degree graduates, who qualified within the last three years, would drive change to deliver 80% changes to the curriculum. 

 

Educators would be very capable in English, especially technical English. 

 

In addition 400 existing teachers would be trained in new methods. This would affect 30 districts across Chacherngsao, Chonburi and Rayong provinces. 

 

He described it as a first-of-its-kind, three pronged approach spearheaded by the Education Ministry, the Labor Ministry and his higher education ministry. 

 

The aims are to teach English and computer coding in particular side by side other subjects that would lead to more qualified and able people entering the workforce. 

 

Source: Thai Rath

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-12-06

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[daiwill60]

Usual regurtitation of an old topic

[Creasy]

With a few catch phrases all of Thailands woeful English education is solved.

Three cheers for the minister 

[BobbyL]

Again, not a bad idea. However, will they have any plan to implement this properly, or will it slowly die out and never be mentioned again? I would say the latter, sadly.

[StayinThailand2much]

This is all BS. The curricula for Thai students are simply too hard. In high school they ask students to discuss topics, such as the environment and global warming in English, but a large number of the students (after "studying" English for the past 11 or 12+ years), have never learned to even utter simple sentences such as: "Hi. My name is Somchai." Besides, overly long school days lead to tired and apathetic students. The lack of Thai and foreign teachers doesn't help, and a large number of classes is cancelled for the sake of ceremonies.

[Matzzon]

Is that going to be made out of more teachers from the philippines? The one that are actually lower on the tests shown in the news yesterday. 

[sammieuk1]

One pronged attack "Free" education for all kids????

[bluesofa]

 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Three pronged attack! EEC master plan to improve English and revolutionize curriculum

I thing the only three pronged attack anyone in Thai politics could do would be to poke someone with a fork.

[trainman34014]

Why do anything when talking is what they are best at ?

[dcnx]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

No mention was made of hiring any foreign teachers in the story

Then it’s done before it even gets started.

 

Bring on the next idiotic story.

[Chazar]

where  does his neck start and head  end?

[chrisinth]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

The aims are to teach English and computer coding in particular side by side other subjects that would lead to more qualified and able people entering the workforce. 

Which workforce? I'm not sure what good coding would be to someone in the tourist industry. Wouldn't do much to improve mechanical or even welding skills either.

 

As suggested in the OP, attending a meeting based on buzz words followed immediately by a 'plan' probably isn't the best planning. IMO they should be thinking outside the technical box and go old school; think about apprentice programmes instead of the nonsense being proposed. 

[Pedigree]

Pay foreign English teachers good salary to boost their motivation and they will work harder to deliver and Thailand's English woes will be solved subsequently!

[ukrules]

3 hours ago, Matzzon said:

Is that going to be made out of more teachers from the philippines? The one that are actually lower on the tests shown in the news yesterday. 

I wouldn't be surprised if they made an online app with some course content on it and issued it to the students.

[Orton Rd]

Here we go again re arranging the deckchairs on the titanic of Thai education, they will need to free up time for all this by scrapping most of the time wasting cultural rubbish like marching about to nationalistic music, Thai dance lessons, kratong making, and not so much games and sport. We will get the same announcements next year with no changes.

 

 

[DavisH]

18 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

Here we go again re arranging the deckchairs on the titanic of Thai education, they will need to free up time for all this by scrapping most of the time wasting cultural rubbish like marching about to nationalistic music, Thai dance lessons, kratong making, and not so much games and sport. We will get the same announcements next year with no changes.

 

 

THe curriculum needs to be gutted and streamlined. Why do my students need to sit 18 mid term exams over the next 2 weeks? They are burned out and tired, and not interested in many of the subjects they are supposed to be learning. Id a kid wants to study maths and science in senior high school, that should be it. Why are m6 boys forced to do art and Thai dance, when they have no interest in those fields? Thus, they lose time studing subjects they like and then end up having to go to tutorial schools to actually learn the content for rdiculously hard PAT exams that bear no resemblance to the Thai school curriculum anyway. The whole system is ******. 

[ChipButty]

Im convinced this is the guy to pull it off 

[bangkokfrog]

53 minutes ago, Pedigree said:

Pay foreign English teachers good salary to boost their motivation and they will work harder to deliver and Thailand's English woes will be solved subsequently!

This would be a good start, but impossible for any self-respecting teacher to maintain motivation with a no fail policy.

[bangkokfrog]

9 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Im convinced this is the guy to pull it off 

He is obviously pulling something, but I am not sure what.

[Brigand]

The problems with learning English (and much other stuff) are to be found in high school as it is nothing more than 6 years of brainwashing rubbish and they learn little of use. By the time they get to university then the damage is done and some can swim and many can't. If you want to sort out Thai students ability in most things then go to war on what happens in those 6 years of high school. Your average Thai high school teacher is just lamentably useless on so many fronts and you can't expect the unis to wave a magic wand and reverse all the nonsense they have been drilled with when they get there at 19 years-old.

[Cake Monster]

Thailand has no chance of teaching English to its Children as long as there is very little or no contact with the language.

Its possible to teach A,B,C, in the classroom, but it does not register what it means to many kids, as they have no contact with the language outside of School.

There are few programs on TV, for example, in English, that kids are able to watch and hear the language spoken, their peers will not, or cannot speak English, and the written word is not out there.

My daughter learned a lot of her English from watching Disney Cartoons in English along with Dora the Explorer

You only have to see the  signs on the Roadside advertising " clod dinks " Etc to realize just how poor the English is here.

Its such a great shame, as Thai Students are not a bunch of air heads, they are Intelligent young people, just the same as many others across the Globe. It just seems to me that any willingness to progress in their lives is wrung out of them by a Society that believes they are the best in the World

Well the the 2017 PISA results show that the Thais are not the best in the World, not by a long, long, way.

 

[Fex Bluse]

What a laugh. 

As always, they talk talk talk. 

A new slogan every year. 

Where is the printed foam boards? 

[Eligius]

I won't even bother reading this article.

Decades of experience prove that it is all going to be a load of insincere, intelligence-insulting twaddle!

 

[Thingamabob]

For as long as they employ English teachers who cannot speak English nothing will change.

[Fex Bluse]

32 minutes ago, Cake Monster said:

Thailand has no chance of teaching English to its Children as long as there is very little or no contact with the language.

Expanding this idea a little, they have no chance because they promote a pervasive 'us vs them' mild to strong xenophobia. 

 

Every chance people get, they fall back on this type of feudal attitude when having to interact with foreigners, and especially westerners. 

 

So what Thai children would dare speak openly with evil farangs? 

 

Or, if they do, it is often via their parents pushing them to go and show off to the white people. The conversation is immediately clear to be nothing more than the Thai kid trying to prove what he has been told all his life 

 

"We are (all) just as good or better than any westerners". 

 

The kids drip with arrogance. 

 

What westerner wants to waste time with such brats? 

[Jane Dough]

4 hours ago, bluesofa said:

 

I thing the only three pronged attack anyone in Thai politics could do would be to poke someone with a fork.

I suggest a spork would be better. 

 

Something extra to clean up the mess afterwards.

 

Rooster

[Fex Bluse]

???? adding

 

I had a Thai kid come up to me years ago. 

 

He was perhaps 10 years old. 

 

While his father waited nearby, this kid, started to tell me his dad was an executive at one of the eastern seaboard industrial estates. 

 

He then immediately jumped into telling me that he, the kid, was planning to buy a Maserati when he was old enough to drive. 

 

I walked away, stunned that a kid so young could already be so arrogant. 

 

I've encountered MANY similar kids - particularly Thai-Chinese - over the decades. 

 

Who talks to total stranger in such a way.

 

Disgusting 

 

[Fex Bluse]

They have no ability to relate to the outside world.

 

Outside The Thai Solar System 

[Moti24]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

English language will be delivered through technical subjects in what is called "Content Language Integrated Learning". 

Technical subjects like, "Mobile Phone Apps"?  Yep!  They'll be onto a winner with that one!

[HHTel]

I doubt whether these 'educators' even understand what CLIL is.  I wish them luck in finding anybody in their school system that understands and is qualified to teach CLIL.  I would doubt it very much.