Back to school at last? Ed minister says students, teachers and parents are "94% ready" to go back

[webfact]

Picture: INN

 

Thailand's minister of education Trinuch Thienthong said teachers, students and parents were 94% ready for On-Site learning.

 

Trinuch - who took over at the helm earlier this year after the previous incumbent was ordered jailed - said she'd done a rapid appraisal of all the factors and obstacles about reopening schools.

 

She promised as much safety and good education for all as possible, reported INN.

 

This followed a second assessment of the risks and obstacles that concluded with the 94% figure.

 

88% of teachers wanted to get back to school after online learning, the appraisal indicated.

 

And 90% of parents agreed. 

 

Students were clearly even more desperate to get out of the home and back in the class.

 

Many surveyed thought that a mixture of online and on-site learning would be good to limit class numbers and risk of infection as well as limits on large gatherings in schools at least at first. 

 

Many wanted to see the vaccine rollout - students have been getting Pfizer jabs - continue as well as other standard Covid-19 protocols.

 

She said she'd created a Sandbox Safety Zone in School committee that had examined all aspects of reopening with pilots successfully running in many areas. 

 

But amid the waffle Trinuch failed to mention a date, notes ASEAN NOW.

 

The second semester for many starts November 1st. Many children in Thailand have been off school since April.

 

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[Phuketshrew]

Is that TAT calculator now being used by all departments?

[canopus1969]

23 minutes ago, Phuketshrew said:

Is that TAT calculator now being used by all departments?

students and parents were 94% ready for On-Site learning

 

88% of teachers wanted to get back to school.... And 90% of parents agreed. 

 

????

 

[Falcon]

I wonder just how many people were polled for this result. Probably the usual +/-1,000 people country wide. Real facts are that there are 5.5 million children in Thailand that are in grades 7-12 and, as was reported yesterday in Thai news, 2.2 million children were going to remain unvaccinated as their parents thought it not safe to vaccinate them. 94% is a very high figure to believe and, as with all figures given from government and government agencies in Thailand, expected to be at least 50% exaggerated.

[Skeptic7]

Need them back in school. They've taken over the swimming pool. 

[Sir Dude]

One of the problems there will be here is that they are expecting all staff and students to be responsible. That means, if you have a cough/flu... don't come into work/class instead of thinking "Oh, never mind, I'll just go because it's me and the rules only apply to others in case I draw attention to myself" sort of nonsense. A person can be responsible, but people are dumb, sheep-like and panic prone.

Many will just dodge their responsibility because they don't want to be tested or end up quarantined/penalized etc. It's like with so much else here, they think they can cruise under the radar and won't be noticed for all sorts of things.

What will happen is that you'll get three weeks into the term and some numpty gets tested that has been cruising around to lessons and starts a cluster because they are a selfish moron... then the authorities will sweepingly decide to knee-jerk it back to online classes for the next two months again. Really, they need to do a couple more months online until they have many more people double vaccinated.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, Phuketshrew said:

Is that TAT calculator now being used by all departments?

Amazing how they come out with such percentages.

[eastendanto]

Based on her maths I think the maths curriculum needs a major rethink!! That said how do you put a percentage on whether you are ready to go back or not, surely its a yes or no answer? Are you ready - "Yes" (not a teacher/parent decision - a government decision) - go back to school, are you ready - "No" - then government needs to get moving by doing more maths homework or write 100 times on blackboard "I must do better at maths"  ????????

[new2here]

1 hour ago, Falcon said:

I wonder just how many people were polled for this result. Probably the usual +/-1,000 people country wide. Real facts are that there are 5.5 million children in Thailand that are in grades 7-12 and, as was reported yesterday in Thai news, 2.2 million children were going to remain unvaccinated as their parents thought it not safe to vaccinate them. 94% is a very high figure to believe and, as with all figures given from government and government agencies in Thailand, expected to be at least 50% exaggerated.

i agree … i’m somewhat skeptical of the polling and related processes as well..

 

but.. that aside, it’s my opinion (option only) that the vast majority of parents would support a return to classes - in large part because keeping kids in an online learning mode kinda of shifted child care and even some teaching work to the parents — so just from a purely self-serving perspective - Id bet a lot of parents support return to school.

 

Kids?  well of course- they’re going to support return to school. They’ve lost a lot of their socialization and social networks … so students saying they want to return to me is a no-brainer.

 

Teachers i think might be the only group where the feeling isn’t so unanimous… I’d guess for some, the benefits of working from home (ie no commute, shorter actual working time, etc) far far outweigh the benefits of person-to-person teaching.  So i wouldn’t be entirely surprised if the teachers group wasn’t so unanimous in their desire. 

[Mansell]

My two have been out since the end of February……online doesn’t work for the 10 year old as he has some ADD which doesn’t work well for computers, though he has no problems with video games. Strang how that works.

I think open the schools and see how well it works……if it all goes badly just close again. One wonders about this generation’s education standard when they start working.

[RafPinto]

Teachers will be disappointed.

How many of them are at the beach, renting with a few colleagues a pool villa and doing a few hours online a day.

What a life.

[StayinThailand2much]

6 hours ago, canopus1969 said:

students and parents were 94% ready for On-Site learning

 

88% of teachers wanted to get back to school.... And 90% of parents agreed. 

 

????

 

That's 86.58% in favour (94+88+90÷π), according to my complimentary TAT calculator...

Edited October 14, 2021 by StayinThailand2much

[new2here]

56 minutes ago, RafPinto said:

Teachers will be disappointed.

How many of them are at the beach, renting with a few colleagues a pool villa and doing a few hours online a day.

What a life.

right.  i suspect that this group - the teachers group - might be the only major stakeholder who isn’t so motivated to go back to in-person.

I can say for myself, from ONLY a personal “lifestyle” perspective, i would hate going back.. Online means i have zero commute to/from, so that’s time and money saved… I really only have to be actively engaged for a few hours a day max and on some days, i have no class at all, due to natural scheduling issues… 

 

So, from a purely lifestyle point of view, returning to the classroom IS a negative… therefore I agree with you.

 

now, all that said, I do think there are many teachers that also factor in issues like teaching effectiveness, ability to make better contact with students etc.  so, while i agree that from what i might call a “lifestyle” basis, going back for a teacher might be a negative… but when you take other issues into account, now i think it might be a bit different.

Edited October 14, 2021 by new2here

[mark131v]

Nah she has just plucked that out of thin air!!!

 

Speaks volumes when the so called head of education is so obviously bullshiiting and making stuff up

 

Clearly she like so many others in high positions have absolutely no shame and no honour

 

Thailand is doomed to keep making the same mistakes until these dinosaurs are eliminated and a new merit based system is implemented, shan't hold my breath... 

[MarcelV]

As a teacher I would rather go back to school ASAP. I miss contact with my colleagues, students and general life in and around school. I live in a small town with most areas near schools absolutely abandoned now. Businesses must suffer big time. 

[Misterwhisper]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

88% of teachers wanted to get back to school after online learning, the appraisal indicated.

 

And 90% of parents agreed. 

 

According to my own assessment based on these statements, 100% of the education minister needs to get back to school real quick.

Edited October 14, 2021 by Misterwhisper

[Almer]

4 hours ago, Sir Dude said:

One of the problems there will be here is that they are expecting all staff and students to be responsible. That means, if you have a cough/flu... don't come into work/class instead of thinking "Oh, never mind, I'll just go because it's me and the rules only apply to others in case I draw attention to myself" sort of nonsense. A person can be responsible, but people are dumb, sheep-like and panic prone.

Many will just dodge their responsibility because they don't want to be tested or end up quarantined/penalized etc. It's like with so much else here, they think they can cruise under the radar and won't be noticed for all sorts of things.

What will happen is that you'll get three weeks into the term and some numpty gets tested that has been cruising around to lessons and starts a cluster because they are a selfish moron... then the authorities will sweepingly decide to knee-jerk it back to online classes for the next two months again. Really, they need to do a couple more months online until they have many more people double vaccinated.

Yep I agree with all that

[zzaa09]

A chaotic clusterphuck in the making...

[DavisH]

6 hours ago, RafPinto said:

Teachers will be disappointed.

How many of them are at the beach, renting with a few colleagues a pool villa and doing a few hours online a day.

What a life.

I know of no teacher doing that. 

[EVENKEEL]

8 hours ago, Falcon said:

I wonder just how many people were polled for this result. Probably the usual +/-1,000 people country wide. Real facts are that there are 5.5 million children in Thailand that are in grades 7-12 and, as was reported yesterday in Thai news, 2.2 million children were going to remain unvaccinated as their parents thought it not safe to vaccinate them. 94% is a very high figure to believe and, as with all figures given from government and government agencies in Thailand, expected to be at least 50% exaggerated.

All parents at our schools were asked to participate in this online poll as I'm sure parents were in most schools.

[mikebell]

17 hours ago, Mansell said:

One wonders about this generation’s education standard when they start working.

It'll be exactly the same as few Thais learn anything at school because most Thai teachers are lazy, incompetent, self-entitled, smug, bullying morons.

[Bluetongue]

All this talk of online makes me laugh. In the village down the road they gave out homework for a while. The kids had to take it back on a Monday and get new stuff. Then one of the teachers that lives on site tested positive. So the challenge or concept of receiving and delivering contactless homework was too much so that was abandoned. That remains the situation months later. There is absolutely no online as far as I am aware in any of the local public schools. Unless you can call sending the teacher a photo of your cooking homework online. To be fair there does seem to be an outbreak locally, most of what I hear though, I distill through a filter of scepticism to allow for exaggeration and rumour. The kids at home here, numerous grand nieces, nephews etc are all bored witless as their parents work, there is nothing much for them to do at home

[edwinchester]

If it's anything like schools worldwide then many of the returning kids will go down with covid.

I have 6 grandchildren back in the UK and 2 have caught covid. The eldest, 13, was diagnosed just last week and thankfully only seems to have a case of the sniffles but from reports many of the students in her school have tested positive and sadly a couple of the grandparents are in a very bad way after catching it too.

My wife and I are both fully vaccinated so not too many worries for ourselves but the concern for our daughter, who is 4 years old, is still there.

It's a very tough decision to open up schools again and stringent safeguards must be put in place.