Thailand to recruit 10,000 foreign teachers to boost English standards of Thai kids

[Austrian26]

2 hours ago, Denim said:

 

By lowering the bar.

 

There is a big pool of untapped chavs cluttering up the UK who will jump at this......innit.

i would claim that most native speakers from the UK with no degree are better english teachers than some non native with a degree.  My gf had a Thai English Teacher with a Masters Degree in her uni and oh boy it hurt to see what kind of homework she got. 

[Zillod]

There are thousands of Farrangs in Thailand, with non imm visas that expressly state "no employment", which is fine.  However it also excludes unpaid voluntary work.  Thai schools tend to teach English as a collection of rules.  The missing link in the Thai school system is English conversation.  This is largely because of class sizes.  The large untapped resource of native English speaking Farrangs is always overlooked.

[holy cow cm]

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

They said that the education minister felt that if the foreign teachers he hires teach the Thais to be better English teachers, then by three years time he won't need so many foreigners to teach in Thai schools.

So this guy can go suck an egg. Better he leave his racist mouth shut. 

[holy cow cm]

4 minutes ago, Zillod said:

There are thousands of Farrangs in Thailand, with non imm visas that expressly state "no employment", which is fine.  However it also excludes unpaid voluntary work.  Thai schools tend to teach English as a collection of rules.  The missing link in the Thai school system is English conversation.  This is largely because of class sizes.  The large untapped resource of native English speaking Farrangs is always overlooked.

Does using the word Farang make you think you can speak Thai? How about saying foreigners. 

[fruitman]

They should also stop with giving the bad example on the thai radio/tv.

 

I always get itchy when i hear the commercials from Juurruman Auto ...kids will think that's the right way to say German and have no idea how stupid it sounds...

[fruitman]

They also need a tv-channel or youtube channel where a fluent english Thai teaches them english...so the kids who are willing to learn have access to it...especially the one outside of Bangkok could profit a lot from it.

 

The Thai really don't speak any english at all in the malls...even not in the biggest ones in the centre of BKK.

[Bangkokazy]

Thais don't need English.
Chinese and Indian are TAT targets
-------------------------------------------------- ----------------
For the Europeans to come back You need to evaluate sight on us.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Land of smiles, Thai culture and losing face are the lamest excuses that seem to explain all the deplorable acts delinquent Thais force upon foreigners.
Ask any Thai man about Thai culture and he will probably come out with Sang Som, Giks and lazing around looking for an opportunity to make money dishonestly.
You confront a Thai man with wit and he loses face due to his lack of education and his cave man mentality and will want to beat you up as long as he has a gang of his friends to back him.
Land of fake smiles. Thais are jealous of all foreigners because they think they have wealth and will smile through gritted teeth and bend over backwards to relieve them of their monies.
Thais are taught from a young age to be nationalistic, the country has never been colonized by a foreign power and racism is a by product of this. They think they are superior to all foreigners and despise them but deep down they know they are not.
Until Thais realise that Thailand is not the centre of the world and know their place in the world then nothing will change.

[JAG]

47 minutes ago, bangkokfrog said:

This type of fanciful story form an education official comes up from time to time. As someone said before, it comes back to the attitude of students; why work hard to master a foreign language when there is no consequence for failing. I have seen several instances where excellent and very committed teachers achieve disappointing results and come away jaded. Change the "no fail" philosophy in the Thai education system and you will see major changes in not only English but across many subjects.

Absolutely. I have been teaching for the last five years - Pratom (primary) 1 - 6

At that level the job is great - the little ones are fun to work with, the older children (mostly) enthusiastic and receptive to an imaginative approach - for example last year I got P6 to imagine that they were TV reporters and do a 1 minute piece to camera in front of a projected video of a torrent washing away a bridge, videos put onto the school website. They loved it, and there were some real stars (who said a a Media Studies degree was useless)! 

This year I have a M6 class for Business English. Admittedly the textbook we have to follow is rubbish, and it is hardly an exciting subject, but they are bone idle and know that they will not fail. At the end of the last semester I set the task of writing a CV as the exam.

 One creature, who only attended a couple of lessons handed in the answer: "Teacher I not know (sic)". I gave him 5%, the head of department adjusted the grade to 70%. He could not be allowed to fail. An absolute waste of time. I don't know how guys who teach at secondary level stand it!

 

[holy cow cm]

11 minutes ago, murikamba said:

Racist, huh? This forum is a congregation of similar people who bash Thai, Chinese, Indians 24 hours a day. What I would call them?

Murikamba. What the heck are you trying to say? I have a mixed family but am consistently picked on from who?

[DaRoadrunner]

Farangs have been teaching English here since Buddha walked the Earth. Thais remain the worst English speakers in Asia.

 

Not a snowflake in Hell's chance this is gonna make any difference.

[jimrod]

3 hours ago, Jare said:

I'll do it for 64,000,000 baht a year, I'm worth at least 3,000 not-really-native-speakers.

At that price, I'd prefer one who knew when to use a full stop.

[SpanishExpat]

7 hours ago, Kelsall said:

From what English teachers here have told me, schools prefer American teachers over other nationalities.   True?  I can't see them getting many Americans to fly this far to teach for what is considered low pay in the US. 

A friend of mine owns an agency mediating teachers. She told me that most schools don’t employ South African nationals (regardless of their qualification). It’s a xenophobic country and everyone knows it.

[scorecard]

8 hours ago, darksidedog said:

This subject comes round and round and never gets anywhere because they are not prepared to pay the money required to get decent staff. They always cheap out and employ those for whom English is often a second or third language. The other issue of course is one of face and paying a farang more than Thai teachers who in their minds are superior causes a problem. Those looking for teaching work need not get excited. This will go no further than the countless identical promises made over the years and the kids in ten years still won't be able to speak English to anything close to an acceptable standard.

And what happened to the big project that did start a couple of years ago for the British Council to teach Thai teachers to be English conversation teachers. Did it fizzle or what?

[Number 6]

9 hours ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Very true and I suspect all those schools are in the private sector. It is the Government schools where the overwhelming majority of kids are educated which is the point under discussion here though. The pay gap between private and government is astronomical. 100K+ for a good private school, 30 if you are lucky in Government and who that is any good is going to work in a poor environment on less than subsistence wages? Monkeys only, which is who they have largely been employing to date, and will continue to do so, and the reason why kids for average schools can't string two sentences together after years of learning. Hell, most of the teachers can't either.

Harrow, was the exception and the job is not traditional teaching position. Oh, WWA is private.

 

The rest are public schools. The rates of pay in public's tend to top out at 42.5k with most paying between 36-42k in/out of Bangkok. There are a few exceptions that pay to 55k but even these are starting to hire NNES and retain substandard teachers rather than pay the going rate.

 

Ofcourse the sad story here is these are the best public schools in Thailand.

 

Demonstration schools tend to pay a premium but that might be small. Catholic schools will also pay a premium. You will make far more teaching and you can build a career in Bangkok. The provinces 90% of the teachers are just having a go, collecting a paycheck. The monkeys as you've described. Most foreign teachers lack a work ethic and core knowledge of their jobs. But they are stellar at complaining how little they make apparently unwilling to chase better jobs elsewhere. That's when they just start to show up around class time and leave immediately thereafter.

Edited February 15, 2020 by Number 6

[Somtamnication]

Indian food is way too expensive in Thailand. Please recruit foreign teachers from India, so we can be swamped with little restaurants everywhere and prices take a dive.

[Number 6]

8 hours ago, ThaiBrian said:

the demands are ridiculously high from what I hear. 

Most EFL teachers would drown in an international school environment but that's not what's really being discussed here. They lack the professional knowledge and the ambition. Quite happy to run some games and head home.

 

But there are public schools that will work you hard. You can do it, learn and move on and up or stay and do a half job. The K12 private schools are more demanding as well as the university Demonstration schools.

 

Being a real teacher is very demanding. Many Thai teachers might have been okay teachers in their day, but they are old and tired.

 

We as westerners have no idea how backward this country was educationally 40 years ago. This legacy remains but back then completing HS was as rare as completing university 80 years ago in the west.

 

The top 25 HS in the nation are still thought of highly, revered and have alum associations as western universities.

[ThaiBunny]

How many foreign teachers are willing to relocate to Thailand for the pittance being paid?

[saengd]

7 minutes ago, ThaiBunny said:

How many foreign teachers are willing to relocate to Thailand for the pittance being paid?

This will be oversubscribed several times, would be expat English will be beating a path to apply, you watch.

[baansgr]

Quite simple let NES retirees teach that have a lifetime experience, a passion for their community and a real desire to contribute to Thai esucation. Apsrt from already being based in Thailand probably for a long time and some understanding of Thai culture, surely beats any crappy ology degrees most youngsters get now that just want to spend a gap year travelling. They really are overlooking a vast untapped pool of potential teachers.

[scorecard]

52 minutes ago, ThaiBunny said:

How many foreign teachers are willing to relocate to Thailand for the pittance being paid?

Good point and it highlights that the basic salaries of teachers in Thailand (99.9% are Thai folks) are less that a disgrace (same for police etc). 

 

Result is that the very poor salaries paid to Thai teachers compared to a good salary for a western teacher has an enormous gap and brings up discussion points like 'too expensive to have western teachers' and jealousy. 

 

The whole discussion would have some proper merit if the salaries paid to Thai teachers was on a par with the levels (compared to other professions) which are present in western societies. 

[jlwilliamsjr18]

For sure, they're lining up in the Philippines. 

[ChrisY1]

This is the best way they can keep their population dumbed down....don't improve education standards for Thais, but import teachers, whom the government will have absolute control of with the ability to deport those that find flaws, complain or make improvement suggestions that the elite disagree with.

Will the curriculums be rewritten to align with modern times? Most likely not, as the aim of the current system is to keep students and future adults at their current state.

Similarly with technical employment....import tutors rather than educate Thais.

The wealthy will continue to send their kids offshore into the best systems.....and upon their return, grow to be the new elites.

 

[justin case]

funny right, first they wanted to do everything themselves, see they are complete incompetent, and now ask more farang teachers, to work here for low pay, air pollution, dangers on the roads, crazy people, ...  and a miracle deadly virus that stays at the magical 33 people even other countries are raising fast

[legend49]

Thailand to recruit 10,000 foreign teachers to boost English standards of Thai kids

 

Pity the headline doesnt match the content

organisations to help him find an extra 3,000 foreign teachers to help schools teach English and other subjects in English.

He said that at present there are 7,000 foreign teachers in the kingdom. He said this is not enough for his plan to raise standards.

 

He wants the number raised to 10,000.

 

[dinsdale]

15 hours ago, darksidedog said:

This subject comes round and round and never gets anywhere because they are not prepared to pay the money required to get decent staff. They always cheap out and employ those for whom English is often a second or third language. The other issue of course is one of face and paying a farang more than Thai teachers who in their minds are superior causes a problem. Those looking for teaching work need not get excited. This will go no further than the countless identical promises made over the years and the kids in ten years still won't be able to speak English to anything close to an acceptable standard.

I agree, however, please let me expand on "cheap out". They (school director's) "cheap out" so they don't spend the money they have for a native speaker, hire a non-native speaker, pay them less and pocket the difference. I imagine a good part of the Bt64 mil will go to the same place.

Edited February 16, 2020 by dinsdale

[scorecard]

2 minutes ago, legend49 said:

Thailand to recruit 10,000 foreign teachers to boost English standards of Thai kids

 

Pity the headline doesnt match the content

organisations to help him find an extra 3,000 foreign teachers to help schools teach English and other subjects in English.

He said that at present there are 7,000 foreign teachers in the kingdom. He said this is not enough for his plan to raise standards.

 

He wants the number raised to 10,000.

 

And I wonder how long it will be before the permanent senior bureaucrats in the Ed. Ministry push / force this head guy with his new goals etc., out of the picture, to some extent thru ignoring his policies and directives etc. 

 

 

[justin case]

4 hours ago, scorecard said:

Good point and it highlights that the basic salaries of teachers in Thailand (99.9% are Thai folks) are less that a disgrace (same for police etc). 

 

Result is that the very poor salaries paid to Thai teachers compared to a good salary for a western teacher has an enormous gap and brings up discussion points like 'too expensive to have western teachers' and jealousy. 

 

The whole discussion would have some proper merit if the salaries paid to Thai teachers was on a par with the levels (compared to other professions) which are present in western societies. 

don't forget those thai teachers have jobs for life, whatever they do

 

borrow money like the sky is the limit

 

savings at 6 percent for deposits ...

 

a pension afterwards

 

sure you want to continue to complain and compare ?

[justin case]

5 hours ago, baansgr said:

Quite simple let NES retirees teach that have a lifetime experience, a passion for their community and a real desire to contribute to Thai esucation. Apsrt from already being based in Thailand probably for a long time and some understanding of Thai culture, surely beats any crappy ology degrees most youngsters get now that just want to spend a gap year travelling. They really are overlooking a vast untapped pool of potential teachers.

hey, you are using LOGIC

 

no, not allowed !!!!!

 

thai way or bust

[ehs818]

I think it is admirable for Thailand to want to improve the English skills of the students here. But adding only another 3,000 teachers to bring the total to 10,000 is woefully inadequate. It will be too little, and I fear too late, if more is not done soon. As for using 'native speakers', I would note that the country with more first language English speakers in world is India, and frankly I have a very difficult time understanding them. I'm an American. I think that utilizing teachers from Western Countries such as Canada, USA, England, Australia, and others, makes most sense. And this will cost more, but the benefits that come from being able to be well understood worldwide should be worth the additional expense. Provide decent housing with A/C, transportation and food allowance, PLUS a salary AND other perks to attract younger teachers with good teaching skills.

[Bezdomny]

Being NES with irrelevant diploma and 2 Mondays one Tuesday TEFL course it doesn't make you language teacher. Hire competent teachers and pay them well! 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EF_English_Proficiency_Index

https://www.thailand-business-news.com/news/76941-thailands-english-proficiency-falls-to-very-low.html