Online Homeschooling

[Nabbiex]

I am interested to know your experience with online homeschooling. Can anyone share me the experience? What are the pros and cons? 

 

For example, I found one good link called wolseyhalloxford and its fee are very affordable & professional.  No worries about fee, curriculum & Thai school rules.  

 

 

I am very tempted to take this consideration as I feel the Thai education system has compromised my daughter's M3 learning progress. 

 

Please feel free to express your thought with thanks.   

[malthebluff]

My wife is s teacher in thai government school (paid very little being thai)  and she tells me she wouldnt think twice about home schooling as she says the teachers are very limited in nearly everything they can do or teach. And with home schooling you can bring in  more of your own education being it with books or homework. Teachers here have given up she says simply because they cant fight the system and must of the goid teachers are looking for other jobs because the pay is so small. New teachers 1st year get around 5000 baht a month 

[scorecard]

15 minutes ago, malthebluff said:

My wife is s teacher in thai government school (paid very little being thai)  and she tells me she wouldnt think twice about home schooling as she says the teachers are very limited in nearly everything they can do or teach. And with home schooling you can bring in  more of your own education being it with books or homework. Teachers here have given up she says simply because they cant fight the system and must of the goid teachers are looking for other jobs because the pay is so small. New teachers 1st year get around 5000 baht a month 

FROM ABOVE:  "...as she says the teachers are very limited in nearly everything they can do or teach. And with home schooling you can bring in  more of your own education being it with books or homework. ..."

 

From my undertanding a very accurate comment/analysis.

 

My Thai son and his Thai wife both have a Thai Bachelor of Education Degree, both have moved into other employment because they became so demoralized with the education system.

 

Further, my Thai son (raised to be fluent in both Thai and English) did his last 2 years of high school in SIngapore and therefore experienced student centered learning, continuous push to talk, to ask questions, to do basic research etc., to learn in teams and to frame questions etc., etc., all in the classroom. 

 

At the time I was travelling regularly betewwen Bkk and S'pore, often day trips for work, and he therefore had regular contact with family, sometimes just an hour, but worthwhile.

 

When he went to Singapore he had never asked a question in the classroom. 

 

The first time he came home to Bkk was 2 months after he started in S'pore. He got off the aircraft and into the car and WOW, a very different young man wanting to immediately discuss human rights, methods of analysis and many more adult subjects and he was well capable of constructing his questions/comments etc.

 

Later when he did extended work experience in 2 Bkk high schools for his B. Ed. he ran into big trouble. He made the kids feel comfortable to ask questions etc., he put them in ever changing teams and introduced team appraoched to learning, student centered learning, team and individual presentations and more.

 

BUT, the older Thai teachers found out quickly and protested en masse to the headmistress, and they demanded he be sacked. And he was sacked. 

 

It ain't gunna change soon. 

 

 

[Nabbiex]

1 hour ago, malthebluff said:

My wife is s teacher in thai government school (paid very little being thai)  and she tells me she wouldnt think twice about home schooling as she says the teachers are very limited in nearly everything they can do or teach. And with home schooling you can bring in  more of your own education being it with books or homework. Teachers here have given up she says simply because they cant fight the system and must of the goid teachers are looking for other jobs because the pay is so small. New teachers 1st year get around 5000 baht a month 

Thanks for sharing your wife's kind perspective. Yep, it sounds sad that evolving Thai Education standard is quite slow and not enough to be revamped today as I believe Thai pupils should have more potential skills & the freedom to express their thoughts as good priority.

 

Actually I want to know more about Pros & Cons about homeschooling instead.         

[Nabbiex]

1 hour ago, scorecard said:

FROM ABOVE:  "...as she says the teachers are very limited in nearly everything they can do or teach. And with home schooling you can bring in  more of your own education being it with books or homework. ..."

 

From my undertanding a very accurate comment/analysis.

 

My Thai son and his Thai wife both have a Thai Bachelor of Education Degree, both have moved into other employment because they became so demoralized with the education system.

 

Further, my Thai son (raised to be fluent in both Thai and English) did his last 2 years of high school in SIngapore and therefore experienced student centered learning, continuous push to talk, to ask questions, to do basic research etc., to learn in teams and to frame questions etc., etc., all in the classroom. 

 

At the time I was travelling regularly betewwen Bkk and S'pore, often day trips for work, and he therefore had regular contact with family, sometimes just an hour, but worthwhile.

 

When he went to Singapore he had never asked a question in the classroom. 

 

The first time he came home to Bkk was 2 months after he started in S'pore. He got off the aircraft and into the car and WOW, a very different young man wanting to immediately discuss human rights, methods of analysis and many more adult subjects and he was well capable of constructing his questions/comments etc.

 

Later when he did extended work experience in 2 Bkk high schools for his B. Ed. he ran into big trouble. He made the kids feel comfortable to ask questions etc., he put them in ever changing teams and introduced team appraoched to learning, student centered learning, team and individual presentations and more.

 

BUT, the older Thai teachers found out quickly and protested en masse to the headmistress, and they demanded he be sacked. And he was sacked. 

 

It ain't gunna change soon. 

 

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. Big congrats to your son for achieving his goal by participating in Education in Singapore. I guess the cost in Singapore must be roughly equivalent to IPC education in Thailand, isn't it? 

 

My next question is WHAT?  Do you mean your son was sacked just because he achieved too much. Is that right?   My guess is that their excuses to  sack him must be their very last resort. What Thai teachers are afraid of? Maybe the reason is that he is too good for Thai Education they can not do their job properly. Thai curriculum / politics must be the s***** issue.

 

Apart from that, do you have any thoughts about online homeschooling?      

[scorecard]

8 minutes ago, Nabbiex said:

Thanks for sharing your experience. Big congrats to your son for achieving his goal by participating in Education in Singapore. I guess the cost in Singapore must be roughly equivalent to IPC education in Thailand, isn't it? 

 

My next question is WHAT?  Do you mean your son was sacked just because he achieved too much. Is that right?   My guess is that their excuses to  sack him must be their very last resort. What Thai teachers are afraid of? Maybe the reason is that he is too good for Thai Education they can not do their job properly. Thai curriculum / politics must be the s***** issue.

 

Apart from that, do you have any thoughts about online homeschooling?      

I can't really discuss the costs of my son's education in S'pore, I was working on a project based in Thailand and in Singapore, but client from S'pore. In the initial discussion re payment the client asked if there was anything they could 'handle' in S'pore as an attempt to reduce their cash outlay re professional fees to me. I knew they had strong ties to an education foundation in S'pore so I floated the idea of a deal re my son attending HS in S'pore. It worked. And for my son it changed his life for the better and it's helped him since HS to gain a valuable career. 

 

Sacked in Thailand. Sure there's many regulations and precedents involved but there's no real drive, by anybody to improve the Thai education situation or pedagogy (methodology) or to recognize that 'someone' seems to be bringing something valuable to the situation/valuable for students.

 

In fact there's very little to zero focus on what's good/better for students.

 

A different e.g., my son could have continued and received a degree from the National Uni of S'pore but he realized he needed to return to Thailand for Uni.  Day one in Bkk he put up his hand and said 'ajahn, ajahn' (teacher/teacher). The teacher was a quite old female dragon. She walked up to him and put her face right in his face and said 'What is your name' and gave him some serious abuse about his rudeness.

 

He stated his name (typical Thai first name, family name obviously farang), she scanned the student list and yelled various wrong / stupid pronunciations of his family name, then said 'when you change your name to a nice Thai name I will teach you'.

 

She taught several subjects in the first semester/first year. For the first 2 semesters she failed him for every subject. Son made some enquiries whether he could challenge the grades she had given. He was quickly advised to NOT discuss this any further. The other students also pushed him to drop the matter.

 

Back to Thai HS, older teachers have a lot of power, they pushed as a 'mob'; they claimed he was young and had no knowledge and was inexperienced and was being very disrespectful to them, etc. Reality is that they can't see there's a problem and they are obsessed with the level of respect they believe they should have.

 

Solution by the headmistress who was frightened of the older 'mob' was to sack my son. Headmistress was also frightened the 'mob' would take action to remove her and that was possible because in some schools teachers/older teachers have a vote in regard to appointment/continuation of schools heads. 

 

HOMESCHOOL. Unfortunately I have no experience in this area, and I regret I can't offer any suggestions however I have little doubt there's a lot of valuabel advice / methodology / curiculum and content on the WWW. Sounds like a lot of very hard work and I admire any parent who is ready to take this on.

 

Good luck with this.

[Paris333]

Μany EU States in "pandemic" switch in to remote education where the Ministries of Education have servers (each server cost 50.000 for thousands of schoolsof individual States) and teachers have already attached weekly and monthly lessons besides of that they have attached education books for holidays or weekends. What is the price of minors participation? The most expensive school participation was €134 yearly which it shares per student €1 -€3 yearly. Private schools is very expensive .......I am discribing now about public education system where the data base of Ministry of Education includes many books for minors in preschooling period. We trust the technology in banking system and we are negative in remote digital education and this is controvercial enouth.......Why?

 

[DavisH]

1 hour ago, scorecard said:

I can't really discuss the costs of my son's education in S'pore, I was working on a project based in Thailand and in Singapore, but client from S'pore. In the initial discussion re payment the client asked if there was anything they could 'handle' in S'pore as an attempt to reduce their cash outlay re professional fees to me. I knew they had strong ties to an education foundation in S'pore so I floated the idea of a deal re my son attending HS in S'pore. It worked. And for my son it changed his life for the better and it's helped him since HS to gain a valuable career. 

 

Sacked in Thailand. Sure there's many regulations and precedents involved but there's no real drive, by anybody to improve the Thai education situation or pedagogy (methodology) or to recognize that 'someone' seems to be bringing something valuable to the situation/valuable for students.

 

In fact there's very little to zero focus on what's good/better for students.

 

A different e.g., my son could have continued and received a degree from the National Uni of S'pore but he realized he needed to return to Thailand for Uni.  Day one in Bkk he put up his hand and said 'ajahn, ajahn' (teacher/teacher). The teacher was a quite old female dragon. She walked up to him and put her face right in his face and said 'What is your name' and gave him some serious abuse about his rudeness.

 

He stated his name (typical Thai first name, family name obviously farang), she scanned the student list and yelled various wrong / stupid pronunciations of his family name, then said 'when you change your name to a nice Thai name I will teach you'.

 

She taught several subjects in the first semester/first year. For the first 2 semesters she failed him for every subject. Son made some enquiries whether he could challenge the grades she had given. He was quickly advised to NOT discuss this any further. The other students also pushed him to drop the matter.

 

Back to Thai HS, older teachers have a lot of power, they pushed as a 'mob'; they claimed he was young and had no knowledge and was inexperienced and was being very disrespectful to them, etc. Reality is that they can't see there's a problem and they are obsessed with the level of respect they believe they should have.

 

Solution by the headmistress who was frightened of the older 'mob' was to sack my son. Headmistress was also frightened the 'mob' would take action to remove her and that was possible because in some schools teachers/older teachers have a vote in regard to appointment/continuation of schools heads. 

 

HOMESCHOOL. Unfortunately I have no experience in this area, and I regret I can't offer any suggestions however I have little doubt there's a lot of valuabel advice / methodology / curiculum and content on the WWW. Sounds like a lot of very hard work and I admire any parent who is ready to take this on.

 

Good luck with this.

So your son came back to study in a Thai language program with Thai lecturers, and not an International Program with a mix on overseas educated Thai lecturers and foreign staff? 

[scorecard]

5 hours ago, DavisH said:

So your son came back to study in a Thai language program with Thai lecturers, and not an International Program with a mix on overseas educated Thai lecturers and foreign staff? 

Yes because he wanted a specific degree and it was only available at one Thai uni and only in Thai language.

 

Further, before he started his uni studies my son did his research and discovered that to get employment in his chosen field he needed to have a degree as above, not negotiable. It's a fruitless argument and now some years ago, to argue whether he made the right decision.

 

However he did get the position he wanted and he's since developed a good career. 

[Iamfalang]

Friendships don't matter?  Social skills underrated?  Fun in a classroom bad?  Eating lunch with friends?  Playing games?   Meeting a boy or girl......

 

Online learning as a supplement, maybe.   I'm not sold on this concept, yet.   No friends might spell childhood trauma, and that doesn't go away in a lifetime.   

 

Never met a good falang teacher in Thailand.  99% sure now I never will, since I'm not "teaching" anymore.   I've seen the friendships, and remember my childhood.  Priceless.  

[Bkk Brian]

On 7/1/2022 at 8:37 PM, Nabbiex said:

I am interested to know your experience with online homeschooling. Can anyone share me the experience? What are the pros and cons? 

You did not mention if an International school in Thailand could be an option? Good ones are expensive but if there's one nearby and budget is ok then I would go for that. The one my daughter goes to only employs UK qualified native English speaking subject teachers apart from the Thai dept for twice weekly Thai language class.

 

Failing that then here's my experience with very good and professional home schooling provided by the international school during the covid shutdowns when she was aged 12 - 13 then.

 

First the negatives:

Lack of exercise: P.E. sports. This was a major downside for her as she is part of their Football Academy, she also plans on doing P.E. IGCSE this year and so that would be impossible with home schooling. 

 

Social Interaction: Nearly all her friends are from school, its a tight circle and without being able to see them daily it can create loneliness and feelings of isolation.

 

If you have plans that can counter act those negative aspects then looking at the wolseyhalloxford website and the homeschooling programs they offer, I would say go for it. The fee's are affordable, its a highly recognized organization. What I found particularly good was that you can pick and chose the subjects that you want rather than do all the subjects that are required in a normal school. This allows your child to focus on the ones that will matter most for his enjoyment and higher education to Uni.

 

So long as the core subjects of Science, Maths and English are covered then additional 3 or 4 subjects are plenty for IGCSE level and then after that only 3 needed for A level that will get entrance to any good University here or abroad.

 

Good luck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ELL]

Hello,

my children studied there for 2 years. PM me, I will tell you all plus and minus.

[youreavinalaff]

On 7/2/2022 at 5:53 AM, malthebluff said:

New teachers 1st year get around 5000 baht a month 

No they don't. Minimum wage for a government teacher is 15k a month.  

 

There are annual increases. More if you are prepared to study and take tests.

 

After 20 years service expect to be in the high 30k bracket.

 

Free health care for you and the family, cheap loans, good investment opportunities and great pension upon retirement at 60 years old. 

 

A very prosperous career.

[malthebluff]

18 hours ago, youreavinalaff said:

No they don't. Minimum wage for a government teacher is 15k a month.  

 

There are annual increases. More if you are prepared to study and take tests.

 

After 20 years service expect to be in the high 30k bracket.

 

Free health care for you and the family, cheap loans, good investment opportunities and great pension upon retirement at 60 years old. 

 

A very prosperous career.

My wife has been in a government school 4 years now takes home around 15k after doing 4 years at uni to become a teacher. The first year at a real school is still only training at the pay then was 4k it  is 5k now as it dosnt come under the national wage as its classed as training still. Ask a 1st year teacher at any government  school what the pay is. Yes after 30 years it could go up to 30k a month and yes I to ( farang ) get free health care but that to is limited to government hospitals. Work at 7/11 and the salary would be 12k a month for less hours. But it's not about pay it's about how the teachers hands are tired and how the must teach the kids keeping them blinkered and narrow minded

[youreavinalaff]

1 hour ago, malthebluff said:

My wife has been in a government school 4 years now takes home around 15k after doing 4 years at uni to become a teacher. The first year at a real school is still only training at the pay then was 4k it  is 5k now as it dosnt come under the national wage as its classed as training still. Ask a 1st year teacher at any government  school what the pay is. Yes after 30 years it could go up to 30k a month and yes I to ( farang ) get free health care but that to is limited to government hospitals. Work at 7/11 and the salary would be 12k a month for less hours. But it's not about pay it's about how the teachers hands are tired and how the must teach the kids keeping them blinkered and narrow minded

I have worked in many government schools. The training you refer to us not the first year of employment but the last year of study. Totally different to what you are trying to maintain, and yes, I have asked. In fact I've seen the salary scales from Ajarn 1 to Ajarn 5.

 

Most 7/11 employees are on minimum wage. 12 hour shifts for around 300 baht a day. Not sure how you can equate more money for less hours. Many Thai teachers will only teach upto 4 hours a day and will go home after their last class instead of remaining until 4pm. Add into that the paid holidays it is easy to see teachers do far less hours. 

 

There us a set curriculum, I agree. However, I have witnessed many methods of teaching said curriculum. Those teachers that prefer their students to be blinkered usually do so from choice. I have witnessed great teachers using their own style to great effect. I have also witnessrd lazy teachers that are happy to just go the course.

 

I know many teachers who find their job rewarding, both emotionally and financially. One can only get out if it what one puts in.

 

 

[cdemundo]

My friend and co-worker put his son in online high school because he wasn't making progress towards graduation.

He was failing several classes.

The online courses that he took had daily well-defined assignments that the parents could monitor.

My friend was calling his son several times a day to make sure he was getting his work done and to keep him focussed on the progress he was making.

I remember that the young man caught up with his studies and ended up graduating in the normal 4 years.

 

My friend felt that the key was the parents having the goals available and being able to work with the student and keep him on track.

 

[youreavinalaff]

12 hours ago, cdemundo said:

My friend felt that the key was the parents having the goals available and being able to work with the student and keep him on track.

The same result can be achieved in state school.

 

My daughter studied at Thai government school from the ages of 3 to 18. I was alway there at home to check her progress. I also spoke to her in English from the day she was born to ensure she was proficient in English.

 

She is now in the UK studying, on the job, to be an RNA. She will follow that up with further study to become an RN.

[recom273]

On 7/2/2022 at 9:17 PM, Iamfalang said:

Friendships don't matter?  Social skills underrated?  Fun in a classroom bad?  Eating lunch with friends?  Playing games?   Meeting a boy or girl......

 

Online learning as a supplement, maybe.   I'm not sold on this concept, yet.   No friends might spell childhood trauma, and that doesn't go away in a lifetime.   

 

Never met a good falang teacher in Thailand.  99% sure now I never will, since I'm not "teaching" anymore.   I've seen the friendships, and remember my childhood.  Priceless.  

Totally agree with you, a lot of life long bonds that are very important in Thai society are forged at school, but there must be a point when you decide that getting a good education overrides your points. 

 

You well know how much time is wasted in Thai schools, how much <deleted> is shoveled, how poor some of the (western) teachers can be and what system they work in. I don’t have kids, but this was one thing that was playing on my mind when we my wife and I were contemplating the idea.

 

I think you might be able assist the kid in making friends by encouraging participation in ECA - playing badminton or soccer, extra language classes or just letting kids be kids and hanging with the locals. 

[cooked]

On 7/2/2022 at 9:17 PM, Iamfalang said:

Friendships don't matter?  Social skills underrated?  Fun in a classroom bad?  Eating lunch with friends?  Playing games?   Meeting a boy or girl......

 

Online learning as a supplement, maybe.   I'm not sold on this concept, yet.   No friends might spell childhood trauma, and that doesn't go away in a lifetime.   

 

 

Yes I have seen these arguments before. Plenty of opportunities for friendships out of school, meaning that social skills would be learnt socialising with people of all ages and walks of life.... etc. Statistics have shown that home schooled kids are better adjusted. I went to University (OMG, 55 years ago) a totally introverted, shy and brow beaten idiot. Three years of engineering study changed that. I ended up leading a semi professional dance troop!

[markclover]

You don't have to get a fancy online school.  I believe you can use an affordable language centre (shopping mall school) and then get the teacher to write a report about the kids progress.  This will then be sent to government to prove that the kid received home-schooling.

 

I believe home-schooling is better.  It is not worth putting your child though 13 years of school when they could just sit a 1 hour GED, move on and be considered the same level.  Government schooling quite simply a waste of time with no clear goal.