Analysis New school year, same old story: Thailand’s education system ‘stuck in the past’

[Graham8888]

6 hours ago, freeworld said:

Well, people are in employment in business, banking, govt and the military and are attending and graduating from colleges and universities.

 

So many when they apply  themselves must be receiving an education.

Yes i have worked with them - they went to school and uni in either England or America and obviously there are natural entrepreneurs in business that will succeed without school its the way -a  few well educated at the top of the pyramid earning all the money 

[paulikens]

Just now, ChrisKC said:

Most Thai food is junk food- You show me a dish that has any vegetables in it and no processed ingredients.

 

in any event, the lady is in business to satisfy a ready market.

 

Could be a lot worse - selling weed!

 

 

True. It always makes me laugh that people seem to think Thai food is healthy.   In general it's fairly unhealthy. 

[Surasak]

6 hours ago, freeworld said:

Well, people are in employment in business, banking, govt and the military and are attending and graduating from colleges and universities.

 

So many when they apply  themselves must be receiving an education.

At Private Schools no doubt. There still those who learn from their parents or employer, the rote way. No critical thinking required and no chance of advancement to better themselves. The pendulum swings, but that is all it can do.

[Snackbar]

Every parents responsibility 

[Surasak]

6 hours ago, Peabody said:

Private schools, plagiarized work, and fake degrees.

A university close to me was closed due that problem. It is taking along time to get back on its feet after a two year closure.

[Surasak]

6 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

and you apparently think education is better in western countries .

As usual one has to pay large to get good education and the kids I see ( if they even bother going to school, are a bunch of numpties that probably can't subtract 3 from 5. They are, however, really good at bullying on social media, looking at porn and taking days off to protest about things they don't understand like climate change.

 

Ah, but the sun was shining this morning and this afternoon it rained and a thunder storm. That's climate change for sure. Don't under estimate these kids!

[StayinThailand2much]

24 minutes ago, dirtybirty said:

It's easy really keep the masses uneducated easy to control.

 

And the rich and powerful can always send their kids overseas for education...

[Purdey]

So sad to read all the negative comments. There are no real "politics" behind education. It is mainly bureaucrats stealing what budget they can and the top people sending their kids to America so that they will have a good job on their return.

The rural teachers I work with want to give a better education to their students but their budget won't pay for diddly squat. We installed solar panels because they aren't allowed an electricity connection (the school is on military land, don't ask). They had ministry mandated PCs but no electricity!

We have built a library and filled it with science books and cartoons that kid like because kids want to read. It isn't that all teachers don't want to educate - they just don't all have the needed resources.

[Peabody]

The main reason that students are failures is that students can't fail.

[keithkarmann]

Nothing will ever change just the same with the road traffic. Good education gives power to the people, something that is not encouraged. My wife's sister has just finished high school at 19 years old and has not got a chance at getting any jobs. During all the years at school she has had no computer experience. She is lazy so that is not going to help her in her job search starting this week in Bangkok. I predict within a week she will be back in the village crying in mamas arms. I can see why pretty girls without good education end up in bars but sadly with that in mind her only opportunity will be working on the farm but during my 10 years of knowing her I have not seen any indication that she wants to do any work, only eat and sleep.

[sambum]

1 hour ago, paulikens said:

True. It always makes me laugh that people seem to think Thai food is healthy.   In general it's fairly unhealthy. 

 

And this is to do with education? 

 

Well, I suppose it is in  a way if you are talking about educating yourself on Thai cuisine! 

[Srikcir]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand’s education is still stuck in the 2.0 era

Exactly where the Deep State wants it.

Witness former junta and PM Leader Prayut's 12 Values:

"Honesty, sacrifice, and patience, with positive attitude for the interest of the public," "Practicing filial piety towards parents, guardians, and teachers," "Seeking both direct and indirect knowledge and education," "Preservation of Thai traditions and culture"  (Wikipedia)

No mention of preparing Thais for meeting international challenges nor develop a progressive and free-thinking society.

Thailand education system is a Hub of Uniform Obedience.

[BangkokReady]

8 hours ago, KhunLA said:

Not sure stuck in the past is a bad thing now.  

 

The way the West is heading, there seems to be something to be said for an education system that focusses strongly on unity, cultural identity, and citizenship.

[BangkokReady]

7 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

On just one A4 page I found something like a dozen errors and corrected them for her to give to the professor, who simply threw it in the bin.

 

There's no way your Thai wife would have done that to her professor.  She probably threw it in the bin herself and lied to you.

[BangkokReady]

6 hours ago, retarius said:

Sorry, but this isn't rocket science. All you have to do is copy the way they do things in successful countries like Scandinavia in the west or Singapore, Japan or China here in the East.

 

This is likely to clash with Thai culture pretty significantly.

[Bangkok Barry]

11 minutes ago, BangkokReady said:

 

There's no way your Thai wife would have done that to her professor.  She probably threw it in the bin herself and lied to you.

 

So you think you know my wife better than I do. I'd dispute that.

[BangkokReady]

28 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

So you think you know my wife better than I do. I'd dispute that.

 

I think I know Thai people better than you do.

[trainman34014]

I was recently talking to a Lady Thai Maths Teacher who will retire later this year.   When she told me she was a Maths Teacher i said 'Well; i don't mean to insult you perrsonally but after living here for almost 20 years i have yet to meet a Young person who can count lore than the fingers on both hands without the use of a Calculator or Electronic Device ! '     She replied';  ' Well, Thai Kids are generally very lazy and it is not easy to teach them anything that they are not interested in , so we leave it to the Parents to organise additional private lessons if they are worried their Children are not learning enough at School '.

 

Not much hope for the future then !

[ikke1959]

10 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

and you apparently think education is better in western countries .

As usual one has to pay large to get good education and the kids I see ( if they even bother going to school, are a bunch of numpties that probably can't subtract 3 from 5. They are, however, really good at bullying on social media, looking at porn and taking days off to protest about things they don't understand like climate change.

 

You remind me of the difference between free and nothing.  I went to school for free, you  for nothing...

[koele2]

An educated population is NOT what the elites running this country want.  Never have, never will.  The goal is to keep them as servants to the super rich.  That’s it.

[ikke1959]

20 minutes ago, trainman34014 said:

I was recently talking to a Lady Thai Maths Teacher who will retire later this year.   When she told me she was a Maths Teacher i said 'Well; i don't mean to insult you perrsonally but after living here for almost 20 years i have yet to meet a Young person who can count lore than the fingers on both hands without the use of a Calculator or Electronic Device ! '     She replied';  ' Well, Thai Kids are generally very lazy and it is not easy to teach them anything that they are not interested in , so we leave it to the Parents to organise additional private lessons if they are worried their Children are not learning enough at School '.

 

Not much hope for the future then !

Indeed there are many private lessons that doesn't add anything to things the students learn at school, only good for the wallet of the teacher and bad for the wallet of the parents.. I know kids that in the long summer break had to go to private lessons every day till Songkran and after Songkran the lessons started again.. When can a kid relax its mind? The parent of the kid said it is good as at home he did not have friends to play with so better go to school....

[scorecard]

8 hours ago, proton said:

Why cant they all be like Thai government top tier schools which are more like private ones, with high costs it must be said. English to a high standard, foreign history books in English, special dance and drama courses. They have little of the nationalistic flag waving and marching about or wasting hours on other nonsense. Competition to get into them is high. If they can do it for a few schools they can do it for a lot more.

Some also have:

 

- Foreign qualified experienced teachers for maths.

- foreign qualified experienced teachers for maths.

- Also just heard about a school which has 2 teachers in the room for maths: A qualified experienced foreign teacher and a qualified experienced Thai teacher and they do 'team teaching': the concept explained in Thai and then explained again in English. 

[Bangkok Barry]

1 hour ago, BangkokReady said:

1 hour ago, Bangkok Barry said:

So you think you know my wife better than I do. I'd dispute that.

 

I think I know Thai people better than you do.

 

I've been living here 27 years, so I think I have an insight.  Another idiotic comment from you.

[herfiehandbag]

I live next door to a rural school, which teaches up to Mattayom (secondary) 3. In fact my living room is separated from the M1 - M3 classroom block by a strip of lawn and a soi - at most 30 metres. I don't have Aircon so my windows are invariably open, I am a retired teacher, and I am used to listening to the lessons - particularly the rote learning chanting abomination which is English.

 

The children returned to school last Thursday, for the last four days they have paraded outside the classrooms for flag raising and haranguing by a variety of characters, followed by a spot of foot drill and marching. They are then split into work details and set to work cleaning, weeding, sweeping and for the boys clearing undergrowth behind the classroom block. There have been no lessons for Mattayom 1 to 3 for 4 days (today) of course is a holiday. I can't speak for Pratom ( primary) as their classroom block is further away. 

 

The headmaster is a fairly jovial cove, and often tries to persuade me to give a few hours as a volunteer helping the English teaching, I have some sympathy, he is permanently short of teachers. I usually do a couple of lessons a week, I enjoy it, the children seem to enjoy trying to talk, and it helps keep me in good favour around the village. He is especially persistent when O Net time approaches! I expect, when classes eventually resume, he will be round to drink coffee and persuade me!

 

But, one week into the new school term, no lessons yet!

[proton]

One girl visiting from rural Roi Et some time ago was telling us about school life, she was about 9. Asked her what her place was in the class she proudly told us she was number one in the class. When asked how many there were in the class- two, her and another girl.😁

[BangkokReady]

24 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

I've been living here 27 years, so I think I have an insight. 

 

Doesn't sound like it.  The chances of a Thai student turning up to class and telling their professor that their foreign husband had corrected their work and pointed out their the professor's errors, is very slim.  However, the chances of a Thai student telling their husband that they would do so, then not doing it and lying about it, are pretty high.  You would know that if you really knew Thai people.

 

24 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

Another idiotic comment from you.

 

Just because you made an idiotic comment (again), and I pointed out that you were wrong (again), it doesn't make my comment idiotic.  🤷‍♂️

[fleccer]

I believe the Thailand's education system must remains as it is 

[MangoKorat]

I know very little about the Thai education system, other than it seems, in general, to range from poor to very poor - usually on a city/rural basis.

 

It appears that its never been seen as a priority for successive Thai governments (apart from talking about it - as the do with everything else) which will backfire on them eventually - but that may not be too far away.

 

All economies change over time and as they rise and go though different phases, the types of employment change. Thailand still relies on labour intensive industries but that will change as mega corporations move their manufacturing bases to cheaper countries.  China is already seeing that as some of their own maufacturing capacity moves to countries like Cambodia and Vietnam.

 

Eventually a more service based economy will take over and that will be when the government of the time will realise their mistake.  Service based economies rely far more on 'brain power' than simple labour. Of course there will always be a requirement for labour but the requirement for better educated workers will increase and as things stand, that requirement will not be met.

 

However, as has been seen in Europe in recent years, it's a mistake to focus too much on academic education at the expense of more vocational based learning. The UK for example, focused far too much on the academic side and now has severe shortages of skilled plumbers, electricians etc. I can't speak for city areas but finding a truly skilled tradesman in rural Thailand is already very difficult. It a matter of forecasting and getting the balance right

 

That shouldn't be too difficult, they only have to look at what happened in Europe as economies changed. The reality is probably that in their usual way, the Thai government will think that Thailand is unique and ignore the changes that other parts of the world have gone through.

 

There is also a moral view on this - every kid, regardless of their parent's income or where they live should get a decent basic education, vocational or academic learning comes later. That doesn't seem to happen though.

 

For example, its clear from my girlfriend's daughter's general demeanor that she is actually very bright but its sad to see that despite spending long hours at school every day, she learns very little. Far too much of the Thai school day seems to be given over to 'Love Thailand' lessons and Royal History. She is being deprived of basic learning and I believe this is repeated day in day out all over Thailand.

[MangoKorat]

4 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

There's no way your Thai wife would have done that to her professor.  She probably threw it in the bin herself and lied to you.

How can you say that?  He knows his wife and what she's capable of, not you.

 

Its true that most Thai's practice subservience and wouldn't dare question those 'higher' than themselves but there are some that do.

 

My mate's wife doesn't give a damn, she calls a spade a spade and tells it like it is - she wouldn't be afraid to do exactly what his wife did.  I once saw her in action against a copper that was trying to 'fine' her for a made up offence - boy did he get a tongue lashing!

[ChristianBlessing]

14 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

and you apparently think education is better in western countries .

As usual one has to pay large to get good education and the kids I see ( if they even bother going to school, are a bunch of numpties that probably can't subtract 3 from 5. They are, however, really good at bullying on social media, looking at porn and taking days off to protest about things they don't understand like climate change.

 

Have you ever taught in a western school?