A student undergoes a temperature check as schools reopen due to the easing of restrictions after a temporary closure to combat the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus in Bangkok. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)

 

Most schools, students, and their parents are not ready for online learning, required by the COVID-19 situation, for a number of reasons, according to an opinion survey conducted by Suan Dusit Poll of Suan Dusit University between June 14th and 17th.

 

With the exception of those in the Deep Red zones, such as Bangkok, schools across Thailand reopened on June 14th, about a month later than the normal opening of the new semester, due to widespread COVID-19 infections.

 

Suan Dusit Poll gauged the opinions of 3,749 people, including school administrators, teachers, students, and their parents, about how they view online learning, which is being applied in many schools, especially in the Deep Red zones, where on-site studying is still restricted.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/schools-students-and-parents-not-ready-for-online-learning-suan-dusit-poll/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2021-06-21

 

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Thailand not ready for anything it would seem!

62.22% of the respondents want the state to provide devices to students and schools for online learning

 

I 100% agree - you stop the kids from attending school, you provide the apparatus for them to work at home - knock it out of the school fees !

And they just notice that now, after over a year??? Online learning can never replace the benefits of a "real" class... 

So does that mean a laptop for every kid.

I would love that move if I owned a games shop.

16 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

So does that mean a laptop for every kid.

I would love that move if I owned a games shop.

Good idea but Games shops are in apps, so they need the laptop????

Most schools, students, and their parents are not ready for online learning

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Most schools, students, and their parents are not ready for online learning, required by the COVID-19 situation, for a number of reasons, according to an opinion survey conducted by Suan Dusit Poll of Suan Dusit University between June 14th and 17th.

Well it's only been 18 months, wonder why it took so long to work that out?

Not ready!

 

My school has been closed since the beginning of April. We are supposed to be starting full scale online teaching today.

 

At 0528 (!) this morning I got a line message from my head of department asking if I had a copy of the textbook for a P2 course I last taught in 2018!

 

They have only had 3 months...

3 hours ago, asiasurfer said:

And they just notice that now, after over a year??? Online learning can never replace the benefits of a "real" class... 

Can you provide evidence/your own experience to back up your assertion? Dismissive comments like yours sound like Trumpisms.

35 minutes ago, Card said:

Can you provide evidence/your own experience to back up your assertion? Dismissive comments like yours sound like Trumpisms.

Yes, I could share you my experience about my kids. But can't be bothered now. Sorry

4 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

So does that mean a laptop for every kid.

I would love that move if I owned a games shop.

From memory, didn't a former wheeling dealing PM do just that, the supply of dodgy and apparently pretty useless laptops - wonder where that PM is now and where are the laptops? 

They dont need  laptops  for every kid  what they need  is  new  marching up and down boots, lets  get the priorities  right.

10 minutes ago, Artisi said:

From memory, didn't a former wheeling dealing PM do just that, the supply of dodgy and apparently pretty useless laptops - wonder where that PM is now and where are the laptops? 

They were sheeety Chinese tablets, made  good  ping  pong bats 

Just now, Rampant Rabbit said:

They were sheeety Chinese tablets, made  good  ping  pong bats 

Again from memory they even failed that as well. 

5 hours ago, asiasurfer said:

And they just notice that now, after over a year??? Online learning can never replace the benefits of a "real" class... 

Tell that to the Australian School of the Air, started teaching in 1951 using pedal operated 2 way radio for distant learning for isolated kids out in boonies, it was and  still is operating very successfully via internet, satellite links etc. 

So "real" classes can be replaced if the correct input is applied. 

All this report tells is the education ministery are useless, unprepared and not willing to get off the fat arxse and fix the problem. 

This scheme was destined for failure, as it has been pretty much everywhere else.  My wife's son is 10 years old, loves school and learning (??!!??), and has been crying over not being able to get the app to work.  He has a computer, which he shares with 2 cousins, but the teaching tool is Zoom, but the portal is thru the phone app LINE.  We bought him a cheap tablet, Android, that is making it work better for him, but EVERYBODY involved is <deleted> off.

I have Thai "relatives" whose kids have been studying online. One of them made the move from bilingual to international school last year. He is clearly behind in English and the online classes really don't help. His mom is completely lost (her English is not great either and they just end up fighting all the time...) and she needs to hire tutors which was complicated during the last wave of Covid. Most of his grades came from online home assignments. Since he can't do them in English, he just writes in Thai and google translate. The result is obviously below par and he is learning absolutely nothing from it. They are throwing their money down the toilet honestly.

 

I don't know what is the right answer for schools right now, but online classes are not it.

5 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

So does that mean a laptop for every kid.

I would love that move if I owned a games shop.

Your a bit out of touch most games are sold online currently that you download straight from the servers of the seller. Gameshops are far and few between. (If you mean game selling shop)

56 minutes ago, Artisi said:

From memory, didn't a former wheeling dealing PM do just that, the supply of dodgy and apparently pretty useless laptops - wonder where that PM is now and where are the laptops? 

The Thai teachers are just as worthless as the tablets.

What to do?

 

 

I'm a teacher out in the Issan sticks. Rare are home Internet and computers. But everyone of course has a phone. I've been teaching in groups on Line Messenger.

 

I send out an assignment, they write it in their notebooks and post the photo to the group. I send back corrections. We have little chats and joke around a bit. Sometimes they make video clips for spoken answers. It's been fun.

 

But yeah, some just aren't showing up or doing the work. Parents indeed have a role to play. In my moo ban across the soi, five teenage boys, not my students, lay about all day playing games.

49 minutes ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

I'm a teacher out in the Issan sticks. Rare are home Internet and computers. But everyone of course has a phone. I've been teaching in groups on Line Messenger.

 

I send out an assignment, they write it in their notebooks and post the photo to the group. I send back corrections. We have little chats and joke around a bit. Sometimes they make video clips for spoken answers. It's been fun.

 

But yeah, some just aren't showing up or doing the work. Parents indeed have a role to play. In my moo ban across the soi, five teenage boys, not my students, lay about all day playing games.

Thanks for sharing your experience, you seems to have done a good job...????

 

My experience, having a teen daughter in International school in the southern region, is that in last academic year all boys disappeared from online tuition during the first lock-down, only most of the girls in the Y9-class attended. Some of them however lacked to check-in for all tuitions, including my daughter, if I was not strict, and that's a problem to be if parents have other duties, like for example work.

 

For this academic year, which ends next month, we changed school, as the old school, which offered both EP and Cambridge in two different classes - didn't have from Y10 (IGCSE) and up. Probably based on the first period of online tuition the new school was more strict when schools again were closed during third wave and online tuition the only alternative. Also their use of programs or apps, like Google Class Room and Zoom seem to have improved, which might be due to better experience among the teachers, and parents now parents for example have weekly reports from Google Class Room, including report for eventual missed homework.

 

But even with that extra features only one third of the class were checked-in for online tuition in the first several weeks, mainly boys were missing. After the school began to send emails to parents and informed that missing online tuition and missing homework counted in the annual grades, the cyberspace class rooms seem to be better filled up with students.

 

In my daughter's international school class all the boys have PCs - they use them for games and needs something that can handle a huge graphic card - whilst the girls either have laptops or iPads. Everybody has Internet access. And therein lie a huge difference between the higher social levels, i.e. Thais in the better income range, and relative well-off foreigners, which can afford private school, or EP, or international school, compared to families dependent of government schools, and where Internet connection and computers, i.e. PC or laptop, might not at all be part of a home.

 

My daughter was happy when the school reopened early this month, because when she attend physical class she performs well, get good grades, and never miss any homework, which seems having a lot to do with motivation, including both self motivation and parents.

 

I fully understand that Thai "schools, students and parents not ready for online learning"...????

So some of this now and next generation of students will be perfect for public office if they are watching how everything is being driven and follow suit for how many got their degrees online. Personally only real-time in class is the best way to learn

20 minutes ago, khunPer said:

whilst the girls either have laptops or iPads. Everybody has Internet access. And therein lie a huge difference between the higher social levels

Haha. Before I taught at a BKK private school, where nearly all the students had iPads. Mostly used for games. Frequent late assignments, copied from each other, or not submitted at all. A total waste. Out here, the country bumpkins are getting more done with their phones, and good ol' fashioned pen and paper.

36 minutes ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

Haha. Before I taught at a BKK private school, where nearly all the students had iPads. Mostly used for games. Frequent late assignments, copied from each other, or not submitted at all. A total waste. Out here, the country bumpkins are getting more done with their phones, and good ol' fashioned pen and paper.

Yes, good old-fashioned methods are sometimes better...????????

Online learning is not the answer for many students, parents, teachers and schools. And we all understand the myriad of reasons why that is. But rather than everyone panning the idea and moaning, whinging and saying how Thailand is totally unprepared and couldn't organise a prayer in a mosque etc. etc. . How about suggesting some alternatives? 

 

If schools remain physically shut and online learning is not the answer suggest another alternative?  - TVF members, the floor is yours? 

24 minutes ago, jonclark said:

Online learning is not the answer for many students, parents, teachers and schools. And we all understand the myriad of reasons why that is. But rather than everyone panning the idea and moaning, whinging and saying how Thailand is totally unprepared and couldn't organise a prayer in a mosque etc. etc. . How about suggesting some alternatives? 

 

If schools remain physically shut and online learning is not the answer suggest another alternative?  - TVF members, the floor is yours? 

 

Speaking as an online tutor - Online classes would have been OK for some students if the DoE had done something proactive to begin with.

 

I worked in rural schools that couldn't afford full time teachers, lessons followed a strict curriculum, and were broadcast over a TV, while the kids sat there and watched and did assignments which "the" teacher in charge of the whole school marked. Im not too sure of the logistics, but the framework was there. 

 

The lessons were hardly engaging and fun, but they could have been - With regard to education, this pandemic seems like a bit of a lost opportunity to me.