Thailand Unveils Ambitious “Zero Dropout” Program

[webfact]

Picture courtesy: Wikimedia

 

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin expressed deep concern over the alarming statistics showing that around one million Thai youths aged 3-18 have dropped out of school. This concern prompted the launch of the “Thailand Zero Dropout” program, a top-priority national agenda aimed at reversing this troubling trend.

 

Government spokesman Chai Wacharonke announced the adoption of four crucial measures at yesterday’s cabinet meeting, which are to be rolled out across all provinces without delay. The first step involves locating these dropouts. Following that, tailored support will be provided to address the specific needs of each child, ensuring they return to school.

 

A key element of the program is the development of a flexible learning system, designed to cater to the potential and varying circumstances of these young individuals. This will help them continue their education and harness their abilities effectively.

 

Additionally, the government aims to engage the private sector in a proactive role concerning educational management, implementing the “learning to earn” system that blends vocational training with academic education.

 

Sompong Chitradab, a noted educator and member of the Fund for Educational Equality Committee, highlighted that approximately one million secondary school students dropped out last year — nearly double the figure from previous years.

 

The reasons cited include poverty, political unrest, and a myriad of socio-economic issues. Many families, grappling with financial instability worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, felt compelled to pull their children out of school.

 

Sompong emphasized that the cooperation agreement signed on June 28 between the Education Ministry and 11 affiliated agencies must translate into immediate action.

 

This entails locating these dropouts, assessing their home situations, providing welfare and financial support for education, and securing employment for their parents if necessary.

 

He further criticised the previous Prayut government for neglecting the dropout issue, stressing that the educational system requires significant restructuring.

 

To meet the unique needs of dropouts, the system must be more flexible and inclusive, opening itself up to greater involvement from the private sector and local organisations.

 

In conclusion, the “Thailand Zero Dropout” initiative represents a comprehensive effort to support and reintegrate dropouts, aiming for an inclusive and adaptive educational framework that can handle these challenging circumstances.

 

-- 2024-07-03

 

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[ikke1959]

Enforcing the laws.. I see many kids don't go to school, but nobody cares about it...Sometimes kids have to help their parents because of the low wages and so they don't can't go to school... Poverty must be solved in Thailand and that is possible if the few superrich would pay more taxes and the Government was more concerned about the people... But only own pocketfilling is their most important goal. And please don't stop complaining that higher wages will make everything more expensive.. If people can buy more these companies will sell more and their profits will go up, but nobody talks about that

Edited Tuesday at 11:04 PM by ikke1959

[dinsdale]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai youths aged 3-18 have dropped out of school.

A 3 year old doesn't drop out of school they are taken out and are also not a youth. Poverty is the major cause.

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

A key element of the program is the development of a flexible learning system, designed to cater to the potential and varying circumstances of these young individuals. This will help them continue their education and harness their abilities effectively.

More hot air with zero detail about how to do this and IMHO impossible to implement without financial support to the families. Sadly Thailand follows the US model of very limited social security.

[Ben Zioner]

Maybe it is about time to redirect the 500 Billion Baht of the nationwide vote buying to fund the education system?

[Presnock]

Making poor families buy uniforms for school which does not promote a better learning attitude according to all I have read over the years (sorry I can't link for non-googlers) could be a start on economics reason for some dropouts, plus a better curricula for all the schools.  My daughter began schooling, kindergarten - my wife researched best schools (strong English learning) but all local schools - we tried several, then as she got older we kept going from school to school - again wife researching and schools with a good reputation for learning were our choices.  One within a month of our daughter beginning and even had her picture on their advertising brochure, the school fired all the western foreigners  and hired filipinos so on to the next school - had a 2-year waiting list but daughterf scored really high on their entrance test  so they let us join that school - k-12 grades with lots of western foreign teachers...after 2 years, the school dropped grades 7-12, fired a lot of foreign teachers and expanded their Kindergaten to an extra 3 classes as they could charge more money for the K group as those classes needed 3 teachers vs two only.  But they continued to drop western teachers and then I got tired of the ENGLISH taught by the Thai teacher (each class had a westerner and a Thai taught separately) where the lessons were not only poor English they were totally wrong.  Thai teacher I spoke with in Thai - said that she was not allowed to change any of the lessons prepared by the school owner and head of school and that she was not allowed to correct any lesson with the western English teacher - so I met with the school owner - took examples of incorrect English lessons - she spent 20 minutes telling me how great she was, her schooling background, etc and said that ALL the lessons were correct and would not be changed!

FIne, on to the next school - a Sathit (luniversity) school - brand new building etc new teachers etc but we left after the first year, school offered a full scholarship for my daughter to stay there but within two more years none of the foreign teachers remained at that school and only some of the kindergarten originals remained.  No half Thai nor Thais about 1 st grade (the first year) remained.  Jinally settled on and international school - refreshing to say the least.  It is not on the list being circulated almost daily recently on this forum as one of the top 10 but it was as good or better than any US school.  My daughter spent 5 years there, came out speaking, reading, writing and teaching experience in 4 different languages (Thai/English native, Korean level 4 tested, Chinese a year's teaching (11th grade) at another Thai HS and very high scores (AP classes in) Math and Computer Science.  She is at the #1  University in Thailand and is doing GREAT!  The local schools need to adopt teaching methods and curricula more aligned with the west (EU and US, Singapore) if they hope to bring  better education to this country.  My opinion as a non teacher of school kids but as a parent of two bright kids that excelled only because they opted out of local schools for international schools.

[Tropicalevo]

The government is pizzing in the wind and just spouting hot air to try and look good. 

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

tailored support will be provided to address the specific needs of each child,

 

so 1 million different folk providing 'tailored' support? 

[newbee2022]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Picture courtesy: Wikimedia

 

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin expressed deep concern over the alarming statistics showing that around one million Thai youths aged 3-18 have dropped out of school. This concern prompted the launch of the “Thailand Zero Dropout” program, a top-priority national agenda aimed at reversing this troubling trend.

 

Government spokesman Chai Wacharonke announced the adoption of four crucial measures at yesterday’s cabinet meeting, which are to be rolled out across all provinces without delay. The first step involves locating these dropouts. Following that, tailored support will be provided to address the specific needs of each child, ensuring they return to school.

 

A key element of the program is the development of a flexible learning system, designed to cater to the potential and varying circumstances of these young individuals. This will help them continue their education and harness their abilities effectively.

 

Additionally, the government aims to engage the private sector in a proactive role concerning educational management, implementing the “learning to earn” system that blends vocational training with academic education.

 

 

Sompong Chitradab, a noted educator and member of the Fund for Educational Equality Committee, highlighted that approximately one million secondary school students dropped out last year — nearly double the figure from previous years.

 

The reasons cited include poverty, political unrest, and a myriad of socio-economic issues. Many families, grappling with financial instability worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, felt compelled to pull their children out of school.

 

Sompong emphasized that the cooperation agreement signed on June 28 between the Education Ministry and 11 affiliated agencies must translate into immediate action.

 

This entails locating these dropouts, assessing their home situations, providing welfare and financial support for education, and securing employment for their parents if necessary.

 

He further criticised the previous Prayut government for neglecting the dropout issue, stressing that the educational system requires significant restructuring.

 

To meet the unique needs of dropouts, the system must be more flexible and inclusive, opening itself up to greater involvement from the private sector and local organisations.

 

In conclusion, the “Thailand Zero Dropout” initiative represents a comprehensive effort to support and reintegrate dropouts, aiming for an inclusive and adaptive educational framework that can handle these challenging circumstances.

 

-- 2024-07-03

 

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They have always plenty ideas. But then.....

As long there will be no change in teacher's education there will be no change in drop out numbers. 

Also for kids there are no further ways to learn. 

How to become a verified or certified plumber, bilder, gardener, electrician aso. No apprenticeships, no courses, no certificates.

But only many " I can". ☹️

 

[MalcolmB]

Good to see the government tackling this issue. 

[Aussie999]

Here's a novel idea, why not run biannual campaigns atressing the need for education, and where education can take you... oh, wait, they really don't want an educated population.

[Surasak]

1 hour ago, MalcolmB said:

Good to see the government tackling this issue. 

If the education was half way decent, the government wouldn't have the problem to tackle.

[BusNo8]

Teachers here are absolutely worthless and I lump all (95%) of the foreign, unlicensed teachers, lazy af, incompetent in with the Thai as well.

 

On top of that - the entire 19th C teaching model is no longer fit for purpose. It's a total waste of time. All students should be interacting with and learning online. Doubly so now with CGPT. A revolution has occurred and both Thai and farang teachers are clueless.

 

Best students now study online + have Thai tutors. Classroom is just holding cell.

 

The students are in pain with the BS assignments the foreign teachers force on students. They are far smarter than the braindead teachers think - they know that rubbish assignment, cobbled together in fifteen minutes and that dumbass tired worksheet will not help them learn English or much of anything. Then, these teachers howl that the students aren't doing THEIR work. Meanwhile, they pump out other work from thoughtful, earnest, dedicated teachers.

 

It's time to stop blaming students for a teacher's incompetence.

 

Check your child's school's onets. Go talk to their English teachers. Are you impressed? 💩

[connda]

Virtually every Tambon in Thailand has one, two, or more schools - almost all of which were closed over the years.
Thai kids now have to get up early, travel a long distances to the now overcrowded schools, and enjoy their uniform Thai indoctrination program posing as education. 

Thailand needs to overhaul their education system, hire a new breed of teacher to teach STEM like in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Indian schools, and challenge their students to learn.  Try taking that 10,000 THB per adult payout for voting the current party into power and earmark it for educational reforms.  Otherwise Srettha is just blowing hot air.

[Celsius]

It will go along nicely with zero no sex work program 

[Pouatchee]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

To meet the unique needs of dropouts, the system must be more flexible and inclusive, opening itself up to greater involvement from the private sector and local organisations.

 

only one way to do this and that is inject  $$$$$$$$$$$.

 

As a teacher i can tell you there is a word for this   differentiated learning   which entails the teacher adapting the lessons to the needs of kids who cant follow. nice, in principle, but on the salaries paid here? no way!

 

back home, teachers earn the equivalent of  120 000bht a month (starting 1st year teachers) and that still isnt enough to incentivize anyone to tailor programs specifically. one would have to work late into the nights to prep such lessons.

 

the should implement a fail policy and if the kids were too lazy to do homework and review the lessons -- repeat the year... but hey! no one wants somchai to drop out

[Pouatchee]

42 minutes ago, BusNo8 said:

It's time to stop blaming students for a teacher's incompetence.

 

Check your child's school's onets. Go talk to their English teachers. Are you impressed?

 

i agree to a point. i think you forgot to mention the parents who dont give a crap about their kids. it all starts at home. you are right about the backpack teachers. thais rather have a young, handsome/beautiful albeit incompetent teacher in front of the class than a middle aged qualified experienced person.

 

once again... the problem really starts at home and trickles down... like a waterfall. most of the time i make recommendations to the parents for their kids to improve, they go 'yeah yeah' and nothing changes.   why?  cos the darlings have to be happy

 

Edited Wednesday at 04:22 AM by Pouatchee

[phil2407]

Comes down to school fees - unless they stop the useless uniforms for scouts etc & the gov says 3 to 16 all education free - much better use of the 500 billion they’re planning to give away!! 
make the directors earn their money instead of stealing it!! 

[john donson]

drop out? remember my kid saying that a fellow student passed the year but did not attend for 60-75% of the time... problem with the automatic pass