Education experts fear quality will drop as teacher exams made easier

[webfact]

 

Despite Thailand’s increasing desperation to boost the quality of its education, authorities have decided that teacher trainees only need to be tested on one subject to get a license.

 

This new system will go into effect from March 15. Students and graduates of teacher-training programs who began higher education during the academic years of 2019 and 2022 will only be tested on the subject of Professional Teaching.

 

Before this, teacher trainees were required to test on four subjects: Thai Communication, English Communication, Digital Education and Professional Teaching.

 

“How can we have confidence in teachers’ quality if they are only tested on their professional techniques?” asked Asst Prof Athapol Anunthavorasakul, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Education.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/education-experts-fear-quality-will-drop-as-teacher-exams-made-easier/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2023-02-27

 

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[2baht]

Oh please! Get real and face it! You don't want an educated majority! Maintain the Mushroom Method of education, keep them in the dark and feed them BS!

[SoilSpoil]

Seen the global ranking of Thai education, the universities, or in  school math, science or English, it will be quite challenging to lower the quality. 

[bamnutsak]

Exam now just involves a mirror (fogging means you're alive), scissors (so you can style hair) and a list of folks you "know".

 

Wow, Congrats, you're a teacher now go get a loan from the Coop.

 

 

 

 

[ikke1959]

dropping further than it is already is almost impossible....But it is not always the teacher to blame.. The first thing to get rid of the always pass law and force students to study.. They are not stupid, they know they can't fail...... and stop with giving minimum grades because students, parents and teachers will loose face....If  a student doesn't do anything give him the grade he deserves and not because is always helping to bring the notebooks to the desk of he teacher or giving a neckmassage.....

 

[RichardColeman]

Does not matter how intelligent the teachers are if the children are never in school - my daughter has so many days and half days off as to be unreal. Chuck in all the public holidays and she probably attends 3.5 days a week.

[MyFriend You]

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

Does not matter how intelligent the teachers are if the children are never in school - my daughter has so many days and half days off as to be unreal. Chuck in all the public holidays and she probably attends 3.5 days a week.

Slightly off topic, but my kids in Vietnam go to school 6 days a week, albeit only half days (5 hrs) because there are not enough teachers, too many children.  They get one half day a month off for 'Teachers Time" two weeks off for Tet New Year, and this summer is rumored to be only 4 weeks, then back to school.  When our Niece was in University, she went to school whole days, six days a week..............Peace

[AhFarangJa]

It is all a plot by the Government to lower the education standards. They need to do this after the growth in the internet has seen so many young Thais learning so much about the world outside the Kingdom....

[Will B Good]

Unless you are teaching to advance levels, it is more important that you are 'able to teach' rather than have particularly advanced knowledge of your subject.

 

I taught Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Business Studies and Music to 16 year olds for 25 years, but wouldn't claim to be an 'expert' in any of these subjects.

[bangon04]

How does this new rule apply to foreign teachers working in Thai school?  If at all....

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Despite Thailand’s increasing desperation to boost the quality of its education, authorities have decided that teacher trainees only need to be tested on one subject to get a license.

Yep that'll work, another downward step on the spiral staircase to less educated students.

And how many millions that will that cost the government to fund the ministry to fund the change to bring about the flop.

[Thingamabob]

Just a continuation of the way in which Thai people have always been governed ie kept in the dark and fed on excrement. The only problem for the ruling classes, and why their days may be numbered, is that so much information is now available on the internet.

[Dogmatix]

2 hours ago, Will B Good said:

Unless you are teaching to advance levels, it is more important that you are 'able to teach' rather than have particularly advanced knowledge of your subject.

 

I taught Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Business Studies and Music to 16 year olds for 25 years, but wouldn't claim to be an 'expert' in any of these subjects.

I would have thought 16 year olds needed teachers with at least bachelors degree knowledge of their subjects as they are doing at least GCSEs.  I did my A levels at 16 and it wouldn't have been any good to have a teacher with less knowledge than we had.

[kimamey]

3 hours ago, AhFarangJa said:

It is all a plot by the Government to lower the education standards. They need to do this after the growth in the internet has seen so many young Thais learning so much about the world outside the Kingdom....

And probably too much about inside the Kingdom as well. 

[Artisi]

3 hours ago, Will B Good said:

Unless you are teaching to advance levels, it is more important that you are 'able to teach' rather than have particularly advanced knowledge of your subject.

 

I taught Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Business Studies and Music to 16 year olds for 25 years, but wouldn't claim to be an 'expert' in any of these subjects.

Correct, knowing how to teach is the secret, having a masters or PhD means bu*ger-all if you can't teach. A major problem in many schools and  universities - and not just Thailand. 

[digger70]

8 hours ago, SoilSpoil said:

Seen the global ranking of Thai education, the universities, or in  school math, science or English, it will be quite challenging to lower the quality. 

Education Council secretary-general Atthaphon Sangkhawasee said his agency has studied the 2021 International Institute for Management Development (IMD) rankings, which showed Thailand dropped to 56th out of 64 countries. Thailand ranked a distant third in Asean, behind Singapore in 7th place and Malaysia in 39th.Jan 30, 2565 BE

[Nicholas Paul KNIGHT]

What standards, they could not get any lower, as for the teachers ,ost are unable to think beyond the book , answering questions s another no no for students as generally the teachers do NOT KNOW the answers

[proton]

Went through the teaching exam 12 years ago with the mrs, hard to stop laughing. 

[zzaa09]

9 hours ago, 2baht said:

Oh please! Get real and face it! You don't want an educated majority! Maintain the Mushroom Method of education, keep them in the dark and feed them BS!

That appears to be the clandestine bottom line for quite some time now. 

The base quality and standards of educations and proposed training of said educators has been continuously downgraded over decades. The fanciful proposals of one step forward, all the while it's really three steps back. 

 

Quite clearly reflective of the lower educational levels, more embarrassing are the university and tertiary sectors.....in which they fail bigtime. 

 

The obvious priorities of the ruling classes, as they're not looking to encourage an educated population.

[siftasam]

Some comments here seem to apply to the UK also.

 

May I say that the very best grammar school teacher I had in England would never have got a teaching job today.

 

'Those who can teach, those who can't become inspectors'.

 

Oxford University has made remedial lessons in English available for History undergraduates.

 

Am I correct in thinking that education generally is better in Singapore and South Korea than here and in the UK?

[Confuscious]

Which "Education quality" are these experts talling about.
After living for more than 2 decades here, and having a child attending a Thai school, I can tell you that the "Education quality" of Thailand and the Thai teachers is next to "1 Degree Kelvin".
Or better said: Thai education sucks big time.

[zzaa09]

6 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Yep that'll work, another downward step on the spiral staircase to less educated students.

And how many millions that will that cost the government to fund the ministry to fund the change to bring about the flop.

Less about education and more about profiteering.

Just going through the motions. 

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

18 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Does not matter how intelligent the teachers are if the children are never in school

They've been wanting me to make full lesson plans. As you probably heard, stacks of documents are very impressive, whether or not they really mean anything. At first I was doing two weeks of plans, but then they wanted the topic changed every week, as doing the same thing too many times "makes them bored". The reality is more like they want a bigger stack of paper. I said we can't just move onto another topic if they haven't got the first one, as most of the class isn't listening, are missing due to activities or cutting class, or we've got yet another holiday.

 

Add to that the fact most of the teachers aren't even teaching. Many times you'll walk by a room and see the kids in there just running amok. Their teachers are usually in a "meeting", or have simply dropped off a worksheet, or wrote an assignment on the board so they can go back to the office and get back on Facebook. This explains much of why the students are so disengaged when they finally get a "real" class with one of the foreigner teachers, and why most foreigner teachers eventually quit really teaching also, as no one else is either.

[herfiehandbag]

4 hours ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

They've been wanting me to make full lesson plans. As you probably heard, stacks of documents are very impressive, whether or not they really mean anything. At first I was doing two weeks of plans, but then they wanted the topic changed every week, as doing the same thing too many times "makes them bored". The reality is more like they want a bigger stack of paper. I said we can't just move onto another topic if they haven't got the first one, as most of the class isn't listening, are missing due to activities or cutting class, or we've got yet another holiday.

 

Add to that the fact most of the teachers aren't even teaching. Many times you'll walk by a room and see the kids in there just running amok. Their teachers are usually in a "meeting", or have simply dropped off a worksheet, or wrote an assignment on the board so they can go back to the office and get back on Facebook. This explains much of why the students are so disengaged when they finally get a "real" class with one of the foreigner teachers, and why most foreigner teachers eventually quit really teaching also, as no one else is either.

Oh yes, the "submit your lesson plans for review " game.

 

I was required and used to submit my lesson plans religiously every week, along with miniatures of any flashcards, whiteboard schematics and copies of worksheets, to the head of department. Over one summer holiday she moved offices; they do so every summer, it is like some sort of slow motion 3d chess game, the aim being to reach a more desirable room than your peers and therefore gain face.

 

Early in the next term I had cause to go into her old office now used to store textbooks. There, stacked neatly in the corner was an entire year of my lesson plans, unread and untouched!

[Will B Good]

19 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

I would have thought 16 year olds needed teachers with at least bachelors degree knowledge of their subjects as they are doing at least GCSEs.  I did my A levels at 16 and it wouldn't have been any good to have a teacher with less knowledge than we had.

I think you'd be surprised how many teach subjects at GCSE for which they don't hold a degree.

[Will B Good]

18 hours ago, Artisi said:

Correct, knowing how to teach is the secret, having a masters or PhD means bu*ger-all if you can't teach. A major problem in many schools and  universities - and not just Thailand. 

Agree....100%

 

In my experience the Dr's we had on our staff were, by and large, very poor teachers........but their qualifications look good on the staff list for the Head and parents who don't know any better.

[BangkokReady]

17 hours ago, zzaa09 said:

The obvious priorities of the ruling classes, as they're not looking to encourage an educated population.

It's more about Thai culture. If students in Thai schools actually had proper lessons in what they are learning, were properly assessed, and weren't simply allowed to copy and cheat their way through schools without being able to fail, I'm sure that Thais would be far better educated.

 

The problem lies in the fake and corrupt elements of Thai culture, as these permeate everything.

[BangkokReady]

8 hours ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

This explains much of why the students are so disengaged when they finally get a "real" class with one of the foreigner teachers

And, to add insult to injury, they're resentful of the foreign teacher for making them feel bad and like Thai teachers more, even though they do less for them.

[markhines]

On 2/27/2023 at 2:58 PM, siftasam said:

Some comments here seem to apply to the UK also.

 

May I say that the very best grammar school teacher I had in England would never have got a teaching job today.

 

'Those who can teach, those who can't become inspectors'.

 

Oxford University has made remedial lessons in English available for History undergraduates.

 

Am I correct in thinking that education generally is better in Singapore and South Korea than here and in the UK?
I think it could have been a little smarter and simpler. They believe that more difficult examinations help to assess the knowledge and skills of teachers more accurately, stimulating their professional growth. I also researched the "should college be free" question recently, used papersowl.com/examples/should-college-be-free/ for this. As you can see, there are a lot of problems and many more questions. Simplification can lead to insufficiently trained teaching staff and ultimately affect the quality of education.

not bad

[chalawaan]

It's already at rock bottom.

 

Now they're starting to dig!