21 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Silly sod, my wife is a school director.

Must be my perverted mind engaging in dirty fantasies 5555

1 hour ago, Borzandy said:

It's not a huge problem even at school Thais don't study anything.

Beg to differ.

Where I work they teach Thai dancing. Not one student has been injured due to not being able to Thai dance. Now compare that due to deaths caused by being unable to swim or ride a motorcycle. A huge success by any standards.

Appears to be confirmed:

 

https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30385550

 

Feel sorry for all the kids in government schools whose parents can't afford laptops / tablets. The poorest among them also miss out on a meal.

3 hours ago, cyril sneer said:

online learning wouldn't work even if students were given free broadband and a free computer

555!  They don't learn much at school normally.  Think of it more as day care for kids of all ages! 

Does this apply to uni's,i have no probs only me and the gf in my house,but her 20 year old now daughter at uni,i have no problem if she comes to stay,just have to wear the mirror sunglasses around the pool,when she is swimming or lying on the sun lounger in her small bikini.

3 hours ago, cyril sneer said:

online learning wouldn't work even if students were given free broadband and a free computer

They find a way to spend hours on Facebook and Line watching nonsense.

If it hasn't improved? The last three days we've seen significant drops in the number of new cases. What's not improving? At this rate we could have many days without any new cases. 

And they are making a decision like this now after two days of significant drops in reported new cases, it makes me wonder what the F the are hiding. I'm not a conspiracy theorist ever and very main stream in my opinions, but it doesn't add up. 

 

 

55 minutes ago, Grumpy John said:

555! They don't learn much at school normally. Think of it more as day care for kids of all ages!

I'm a bit annoyed about this, my son being home (he's 8 now) means he's improved his arithematic strategies, learned to do fractions, and read five chapter books this holiday so far.

 

I don't wanna give his time back to school, memorizing useless facts and language about useless old royalty... there are lots of good online sources, his school wouln't come close to any of them.

Edited April 7, 20206 yr by ben2talk

6 minutes ago, spermwhale said:

If it hasn't improved? The last three days we've seen significant drops in the number of new cases. What's not improving? At this rate we could have many days without any new cases.

And they are making a decision like this now after two days of significant drops in reported new cases, it makes me wonder what the F the are hiding. I'm not a conspiracy theorist ever and very main stream in my opinions, but it doesn't add up.

 

 

You mean 'significant drops in new cases reported in the news' right? Not actual 'new cases' which are counted by staff - and as the health minister says, he can't be held responsible for anything they tell him being inaccurate.

 

What DOES add up is the economics - if my wife's factory does NOT close, she maybe stands to lose only 150,000 bonus next year. If it does close, then social will give her about 10% of her salary - and that's a massive hit even with a mortgage holiday.

 

I'm sure that closing down is the last thing that most people want in reality. I'd say the nightime curfew is mostly aimed to catch out the night time drinking gambling fools - and the cost is already immense.

It's not only class time that has to be considered dangerous, but also travel to and from school, I work in a gov school in the country, imagine the kids packed into the van as they do twice a day for hours, and the psychological impact that everything is normal and having students drop their guard regarding social distancing. The younger Phathom grades will be virtually uncontrollable.

Just some thoughts.

Edited April 7, 20206 yr by wcoast
Ideas

Even if poor kids don't have a computer or such, their families likely have a TV, and Thailand educational programs are already setup for TV type learning, not too much of a jump needed here.

We have an 11 year old in our family, he won't be going back to school this term regardless. We have not been anywhere near happy with the level of education for quite some time, even though he has been attending a private school, so the decision to home school him is an easy one to make, especially with the health situation at present. Not interested in any online lessons the school puts out, they are sadly lacking in the classroom, I doubt the Internet would be any better.

I own a small private English school and this is the worst news for us, although I understand 100% the reasoning behind it.

We have been closed for 3 weeks now, after being given less than 12 hours notice that we had to close. After that, nothing from the Ministry of Education - no emails, no phones calls, no letters... nothing! 

I am still having to pay staff salaries (native-English teachers are not cheap!), pay rent, internet and small schools really don't make a huge profit. Two weeks ago I had everyone fill in the online forms for social security; no reply, no notifications, nothing.

I guess I'm like so many others who own businesses here - there has been no offer of help at all from the Government for us.... just sink or swim. Well, K Prayut, I'm sinking, so thank you for this extension.... it will be the death knell for my business.

And, before anyone gets on their high horse, yes, we are doing online classes, but they are not proving popular, because all of the parents likewise have no money, or are loathe to spend what little they have left, which (again) I understand fully.

It is a very sad situation and there will be millions of people around the world who will be ruined by this virus, myself included. Even sadder (for me) January and February were the best months we have ever had in our little school. Things were looking bright.....

I must wonder if any further shut downs will apply to the Thai-Austrian Technical College in Pattaya.  My daughter goes there and just came back home yesterday.  They were still holding classes but via the LINE app.  As I understand it they still had to work in groups to complete their projects.  Had thought that the earlier announcements indicated ALL schools would be closed.

Interesting counter arguments to closure now emerging:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/apr/06/school-closures-have-little-impact-on-spread-of-coronavirus-study

1 hour ago, Assurancetourix said:

They find a way to spend hours on Facebook and Line watching nonsense.

Or post a lot of nonsense on forums, like you seem to do quite a lot.

Roll on the pay cuts. 40% cut for these people until July.

(taken from a FB group).

4 hours ago, drbeach said:

Ironic, because as I understand it, homeschooling is normally illegal in China. They might want to consider changing that law.

In China they do online teaching for the kids that are not back at school.

Home schooling - I think it's taught in the "Advanced Masochism" classes. 

Will it really make any difference? 

1 hour ago, greggraham said:

Roll on the pay cuts. 40% cut for these people until July.

(taken from a FB group).

Wonder what private schools will do. Is online teaching allowed to start before July 1st or will the Government want all Thai schools to be in synch?

 

So many bank holidays, school days off, they could be used if necessary to make up some time.

8 minutes ago, stament said:

Wonder what private schools will do. Is online teaching allowed to start before July 1st or will the Government want all Thai schools to be in synch?

The private international one where my kids are, are using Microsoft Teams and their own system for remote learning. Now on a 2-week songkran holiday but set to start after that.

4 hours ago, ben2talk said:

You mean 'significant drops in new cases reported in the news' right? Not actual 'new cases' which are counted by staff - and as the health minister says, he can't be held responsible for anything they tell him being inaccurate.

 

What DOES add up is the economics - if my wife's factory does NOT close, she maybe stands to lose only 150,000 bonus next year. If it does close, then social will give her about 10% of her salary - and that's a massive hit even with a mortgage holiday.

 

I'm sure that closing down is the last thing that most people want in reality. I'd say the nightime curfew is mostly aimed to catch out the night time drinking gambling fools - and the cost is already immense.

If there was a significant undercounting of new cases in actuality we would know about them. Hospitals would be overflowing. They are mostly empty right now

 

5 minutes ago, spermwhale said:

Hospitals would be overflowing. They are mostly empty right now

They haven't been empty in ages, the opposite: https://www.krungsri.com/bank/getmedia/587ccdaa-91a8-4305-a86f-30ea43558f0b/IO_Private_Hospital_190624_EN_EX.aspx

 

Quote

However, although state hospitals may be found across the
country, their ability to serve patients is limited in some
locations, as can be seen from the following: (i) The bed
occupancy rate3/ is high and in some areas is close to or over
100%. At present, the occupancy rate stands at 103% in Satun,
98% in Loei, 96% in Phuket, Mukdahan and Surat Thani, and 94%
in Udon Thani and Pathum Thani, so it appears that at least in
some areas, the supply of government hospital beds is
insufficient to meet demand;

 

Overflowing is the normal situation.

I would love to see online learning or better home schooling. Put these Rich do nothing for the students education private school owners out of business. 

7 hours ago, stament said:

I think it works best with older more mature kids who require less supervision compared to younger ones.

with kids of 11 and 6, you are spot on.

Look on the bright side. We parents won't just avoid catching the corona virus from our kids, but also all colds, head lice and those other ailments they bring home from those state-run indoctrination centres they call schools.

Edited April 7, 20206 yr by Krataiboy

We are home teaching ours and their English has improved ....go figure

20 hours ago, DrTuner said:

They haven't been empty in ages, the opposite: https://www.krungsri.com/bank/getmedia/587ccdaa-91a8-4305-a86f-30ea43558f0b/IO_Private_Hospital_190624_EN_EX.aspx

 

 

Overflowing is the normal situation.

Dude the hospitals in my area of BKK and in bang na currently hardly have any patients. The parking lots at two hospitals in my area were near desolate earlier this week and one Thai friend of mine when to hospital in bang na and there were like 3 other people in the waiting room.

 

On 4/7/2020 at 4:15 PM, spermwhale said:

If it hasn't improved? The last three days we've seen significant drops in the number of new cases. What's not improving? At this rate we could have many days without any new cases. 

And they are making a decision like this now after two days of significant drops in reported new cases, it makes me wonder what the F the are hiding. I'm not a conspiracy theorist ever and very main stream in my opinions, but it doesn't add up. 

 

 

And a significant increase has just happened.

Of course there is something behind the scenes that we regular Joes have not been told. 

Edited April 8, 20206 yr by garrya