I have been teaching in Thailand for 20 years and have taught at all levels. I have experience in both IEP and MEP programs. I have come to the realisation that I am philosophically TOTALLY OPPOSED to the MEP system. IEP is much more practically based on everyday English. MEP has “subjects” taught in English, usually badly by Filipinos. This culminates in students spending years half-learning a large amount of useless information in subjects such as Social Studies and Science, while understanding very little.

The other day, my M6 students—who are coming to the very end of term—approached me. Why? They are not prepared for their university entrance interviews, which are to be held in English. I only started with these students last year, but they have been in MEP from at least M2 onwards. They cannot answer basic questions about their past, future, hopes, dreams, or why they should be accepted into the program. They are lost.

MEP is a total failure in most, if not all, Thai government schools. The focus should be on quality over quantity. Get rid of most non-native speakers. Focus on using native speakers to prepare Thai students for day-to-day use of English, not giving them a whole load of useless vocabulary in subjects such as Social Studies that they will likely never use. They learn these subjects in Thai.

Drop many of these kids in an English-speaking country and tell them to find a job, an apartment, buy food, and make friends, and it is TOTALLY above their level. Most of them have had English lessons since they were at least in primary school. The system is f*cked.

But… they can’t charge as much for programs such as IEP, so… you work it out.

Yours sincerely,

Over this sh%t

Thai teachers of English can't speak English. Begin at the root before worrying about foreign teachers.

1 minute ago, Purdey said:

Thai teachers of English can't speak English. Begin at the root before worrying about foreign teachers.

Agreed but thats low hanging fruit. We have known this for decades.

MEP can work, but the problem is that they need to have students who are all at a similar level. One of the problems many schools face, especially high schools, is that they need to fill a class to earn enough money to pay for the special program. This means accepting both the best and the worst, but filling a classroom with vastly mixed levels is going to yield vastly mixed results.

On 1/21/2026 at 10:03 AM, 248900_1469958220 said:

I have been teaching in Thailand for 20 years and have taught at all levels. I have experience in both IEP and MEP programs. I have come to the realisation that I am philosophically TOTALLY OPPOSED to the MEP system. IEP is much more practically based on everyday English. MEP has “subjects” taught in English, usually badly by Filipinos. This culminates in students spending years half-learning a large amount of useless information in subjects such as Social Studies and Science, while understanding very little.

The other day, my M6 students—who are coming to the very end of term—approached me. Why? They are not prepared for their university entrance interviews, which are to be held in English. I only started with these students last year, but they have been in MEP from at least M2 onwards. They cannot answer basic questions about their past, future, hopes, dreams, or why they should be accepted into the program. They are lost.

MEP is a total failure in most, if not all, Thai government schools. The focus should be on quality over quantity. Get rid of most non-native speakers. Focus on using native speakers to prepare Thai students for day-to-day use of English, not giving them a whole load of useless vocabulary in subjects such as Social Studies that they will likely never use. They learn these subjects in Thai.

Drop many of these kids in an English-speaking country and tell them to find a job, an apartment, buy food, and make friends, and it is TOTALLY above their level. Most of them have had English lessons since they were at least in primary school. The system is f*cked.

But… they can’t charge as much for programs such as IEP, so… you work it out.

Yours sincerely,

Over this sh%t

I taught for ten years in some of the best schools in Thailand. I fully agree with you and came to the same conclusion. EP with Filipino teachers are a disservice. Western teachers may be a bit better. Ultimately, Thai students need subjects taught in their primary language. The reason that the kids English is so poor is also because of the atrocious job the western teachers do. They are all just wasting time and faking it. The net impact as you've described is nothing taught and nothing learned. I've spent years in a teachers room where I'd witnessed half the teachers do absolutely nothing - nothing. The horrible state of lacking English ability can be placed entirely on foreign teachers in many, many cases past 15 or more years.

Lazy, unqualified. Really shocking and selfish, but when you see their nature you understand.

I left a good job, good school and good pay. Dept admin worthless. Administration didn't seem to care. Not wasting my life with that nonsense...

On 1/31/2026 at 1:27 AM, SlyAnimal said:

MEP can work, but the problem is that they need to have students who are all at a similar level. One of the problems many schools face, especially high schools, is that they need to fill a class to earn enough money to pay for the special program. This means accepting both the best and the worst, but filling a classroom with vastly mixed levels is going to yield vastly mixed results.

Naw

You can't teach mor plai and have students absorb what's needed in English unless they are bilingual or have minimal very high B1 level comprehension and execution.

The notion of banding has been dismissed by academics years ago.

I do agree though that if the disparity do vast that you can't teach to the top 80% you're going to have issues ... and it's not fair to the students

On 1/21/2026 at 10:19 AM, Purdey said:

Thai teachers of English can't speak English. Begin at the root before worrying about foreign teachers.

There are thousands of foreign teachers in Thailand. Well, individuals that fob themselves off as teachers...

Why do you excuse the hapless, loser teacher? They stand before the students equally and are equally the problem.

Western teachers are untrained and too lazy to train themselves up, but having said that they are first to tell you they'd received a better education than the Thai teachers. Pathetic really