Is English being taught in the Thai schools?

[John Smith 777]

I could swear when I first came here 45 years ago, English was indeed being taught in the Thai schools
Now 45 years ago is a long time, so no doubt most of you are thinking that I must be fluent in Thai, and that therefore there is no case to answer for.
So I suppose that this subject box will now be hijacked, with all those thinking that this should be the case.
However when tourism makes up to 20% of the Thai GDP, you might think there might be an incentive to reap more, through being able to communicate with those bringing the money.

[JackGats]

Here's a slice of Thai life about the teaching of English in Thai schools:

 

 

 

The Thai sub-titles are original (not auto-generated).

 

[KhaoHom]

No, it's not and it's the fault of indifferent executive administrators, Thai teachers and especially foreign teachers.

 

I'd come to realize that 85% the EFL teachers are basically frauds. They are lazy and incompetent. They can't inspire themselves let alone a child (of another country). They are just Babbits and see their jobs as to show up and do something. Rather, the profession is to impart knowledge and skills. There's none of that.

 

They are practically allergic to work. They know nothing about the profession or developing quality, engaging content for their students

 

One day I realized that nearly every foreign teacher in the entire fancy, expensive, elite school I work with did more harm than good for the students and that the students were doing effectively nothing that would allow them to gain knowledge and skills related to the acquisition of English.

 

I noticed over five years the students were getting lazier, reticent, academically dishonest. Students with real ambition were leaving the school at m4 in frustration. In the Arts classes 30% of students could not hold a simple conversation. That's clearly on the foreign teachers

 

The teachers .. a mix of imposters and narcissists. Ten percent were gold. The rest weren't worth 35k pm. Some even skipped classes.

 

It became a charade and probably always was. I always ascribed to the notion that forget what's going on around you - you have control over your classes and students. I came to realize that it's not that simple. Learning is scaffolded.. entirely.

 

I had enough and up and quit the circus. Great pay, campus, insurance, nice kids. The other teachers I found so dripping with fraud it was revolting.

 

It was a total charade and nearly every teacher at each one of the five schools I'd worked goes to *work* each day to waste yet another day of their life and an hours of the students time. Thailand should just hire Thai teachers - results will be the same.

 

Education is an Fing mess.

 

If you are a teacher and reading this in all likelihood I'm talking about you. Remember this next time you show up to your salaried job. You're not cheating a big corporation - you're cheating children that you are paid to help

 

 

[Equatorial]

4 hours ago, KhaoHom said:

It was a total charade and nearly every teacher at each one of the five schools I'd worked goes to *work* each day to waste yet another day of their life and an hours of the students time.

 

That was not my experience. Granted, I only worked at one school, an elite high school in Bangkok. There was not a single teacher there that would fit the description in the above post. Of the total of ~25 teachers in my department, the average teacher was solid, and there were a number of truly outstanding educators. 

[SlyAnimal]

On 5/3/2025 at 9:53 PM, Equatorial said:

 

That was not my experience. Granted, I only worked at one school, an elite high school in Bangkok. There was not a single teacher there that would fit the description in the above post. Of the total of ~25 teachers in my department, the average teacher was solid, and there were a number of truly outstanding educators. 

Agreed.
Most foreign teachers I've worked with have had their hearts in the right place.
And most who have stuck with it have done a great job given their circumstances.

Most being a key word though, as some are definitely not suited for teaching in Thailand for various reasons.

But often foreign teachers are significantly less effective than they should be because they aren't managed well by the school.

e.g. A large number of teachers are employed by government high schools, where they're assigned to teach conversation to the Thai section kids.
When I previously worked in a high school like that, the students would get 1 hour per week, 1 semester a year, with a foreign teacher, so about 20 hours a year.
We also wouldn't be provided with any materials for guidance (no text books etc), no oversight and not even any air con.
There was simply no chance at all that teachers could make a meaningful difference to students.

While at the same school, I worked in a mini-English program.
We got to teach the students 2-3x per week, had text books for math / science (but unfortunately not English), and other foreign teachers would teach them other subjects too.
We made great progress with many of these students, but so many of them came into high school without knowing even basic English / math, and so what we could do was limited.

A few years ago though, I moved to work at a primary school EP which takes things a lot more seriously.
The students get 3+ hours a day with various different foreign teachers, we have great text books and everyone is much more focused.
As a result, all of the teachers are happy and focused, while the students have amazing English.

So much depends on the management of the school, and the resources they have available (Not many can afford to have so many foreign teachers).  Also one of the biggest factors is getting them started while they're young, because once they fall behind it's so difficult to catch up again.  I remember looking at the text books the Thai English teachers used at my old high school, most of the students couldn't even put a basic sentence together and yet they had text books full of walls of text, it wasn't a surprise that many of the Thai English teachers didn't seem very motivated when not teaching the /1 & /2 classes.