Unesco Recommends Thailand To Improve Curriculum

[george]

Unesco recommends Thailand to improve curriculum

BANGKOK: -- The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) Wednesday recommended that Thailand improve its curriculum for students from kindergarten to highereducation level.

"This is the first problem about education that Thailand should tackle," Sheldon Shaeffer, Director of the UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, said at an international conference.

Held at Imperial Queen's Park Hotel in Bangkok, the conference on "Reinventing Higher Education: Toward Participatory and Sustainable Development" attracted over 300 educators from 33 countries.

On how to improve highereducational institutes in Thailand, Shaeffer suggested that they should improve quality assessment and researches, reduce the number of unemployed graduates, and provide adequate libraries.

He also pointed out that Thai highereducational institutes should reach out more to communities.

-- The Nation 2007-12-12

[cm-happy]

That'l go over like a lead balloon! Let's see what the Ministry of Education has to say, if they even bother to respond

[Big A]

They don't care. Keep the poor uneducated so they won't/daren't rise up against the rich.

[JR Texas]

They don't care. Keep the poor uneducated so they won't/daren't rise up against the rich.

Having seen it up close and personal as a visiting professor, I can say with certainty that "they don't care." The administrators--all of which are corrupt to the core--should be fired. That would be a good starting point.

[jbowman1993]

They don't care. Keep the poor uneducated so they won't/daren't rise up against the rich.

Having seen it up close and personal as a visiting professor, I can say with certainty that "they don't care." The administrators--all of which are corrupt to the core--should be fired. That would be a good starting point.

One school experience in the NE does not an "expert" make....

Edited December 12, 2007 by jbowman1993

[Martin]

"Having seen it up close and personal as a visiting professor, I can say with certainty that "they don't care." The administrators--all of which are corrupt to the core--should be fired. That would be a good starting point."

That is a generalisation not borne out by my observation at KKU.

There may be some adminisrators in some universities doing some discreditable things. And there may be some overstaffing of their bureaucratic systems that could be trimmed and still 'fit for purpose'. But I have come across a number of caring administrators (and ajaarns), so that knocks out "they don't care" and "all ... corrupt".

KKU seems to me to have about the same proprtions of 'goodies' and 'not-so-goodies' that I found in the five Western universities with which I have had close involvement.

Recently, I read a description by an Economics Anthropologist of universities as "institutions for the certification, creation, and recreation of the middle class". There may be exceptions to that, but not in the six that I know well. And in those terms, I think that Thailand's universities may be serving Thailand as well as universities in other countries that the UNESCO man knows well.

Clearly the OP is a reporter's brief summary of (or set of extracts from) a bigger statement by the UNESCO man. If anybody has a link, or can give a lead, to the man's full presentation, we could have a useful debate. But this 'report' is too brief to base any judgments on.

[PeaceBlondie]

It's not quite as bad as JRTexas says, overall. But the condition of education (from elementary to university) in Thailand is pathetically inadequate for preparing a work force of educated Thais who can enter the 21st century. There are some few, scattered, great exceptions to the general rule, but the education system is pitifully underfunded, undertrained, mismanaged, ....etc.

I have limited hopes that those few great exceptions may increase slightly, but generally, public education here barely qualifies most Thais to be much more than stupid salesclerks, somtam cooks and tuktuk drivers.

[Martin]

"...a work force of educated Thais who can enter the 21st century..."

It is actually quite difficult to see what that 'work force' will be, and what their needs are in the way of specialised education and training.

My guess is that the UNESCO man might well put forward a curriculum suited to those entering the workforce in a Western industrialised country in the late twentieth century; but times have moved on, even there.

Looking at any time, in any place, in educational history, you are likely to find that their young were being well prepared, as far as their specialisation was concerned, for a repeat of the past rather than for the future that occured.

A rather world-weary colleague of mine in a (highly-rated) British university once (cynically?/realistically?) came back to our office from a "Curriculum Development" commitee meeting, and observed that it had been "the usual thing of a bunch of teachers proposing to teach what they liked teaching, what they found easy to teach, and what was easy to examine. And it was all long outdated, but it was what they had succeeded in themselves, and so were comfortable with."

Fifty years ago, when I was finishing college, I was interviewed in London for a job in Canada by a very shrewd Personnel Director of a top firm over there. After the formal part of the interview was over, and I knew that I was getting one of the vacancies, we were chatting and I mentioned that he hadn't probed about my engineering studies. His view was that there was no need. If I could learn 'that stuff' well enough to 'satisfy the examiners' that was good enough for him. What he had been probing was whether I was the sort who would be good at learning 'the totally-different stuff' that I would have to learn in order to do a good job for the firm. When I asked for examples, he said: "Well, it looks like these transistor things may well come good enough for commercial application, but I can't tell you anything beyond that as the next lot of things won't have proved themselves yet, and some haven't even been invented yet".

I subsequently worked in a bunch that exactly fitted his words---mobile radiotelephone, video tape tecording, ionospheric and tropospheric scatter radio transmission,avionic navigation systems, flutter radar, nuclear reactor control and various bits of information technogy.

My conclusion is that curriculum doesn't matter much. That 'creation of the middle class', and the encouraging of its future members to have lively, enquiring minds but also the manners to get along smoothly with their fellow citizens in all walks of life, are the main matters.

(And, as a down-to-earth Yorkshireman in that same university staffroom used to say: "So long as we learn 'em to learn".

And if any clever youngster insinuated that he had insufficient grasp of English grammar to know when to say 'teach' and when to say 'learn', s/he would get a swift exposition of how it was a deficiency of the English language and the British education system that 'being taught' and 'being learnt' weren't distinguished---because they are distinctively different things---but Yorkshire didn't have to go along with English and British deficiencies. We had our own, and he (Botham) was quite enough to have to cope with.)

Hence, 'mae pen rai' and 'bo peng yang' if the Thailand Min of Ed does ignore the UNECO man. He was probably peddling the maximisation of false parameters.

[pete_r]

"...a work force of educated Thais who can enter the 21st century..."

It is actually quite difficult to see what that 'work force' will be, and what their needs are in the way of specialised education and training.

My conclusion is that curriculum doesn't matter much. That 'creation of the middle class', and the encouraging of its future members to have lively, enquiring minds but also the manners to get along smoothly with their fellow citizens in all walks of life, are the main matters.

(And, as a down-to-earth Yorkshireman in that same university staffroom used to say: "So long as we learn 'em to learn".

I'm a bit less optimistic and would say that the Thai system "fails 'em to learn" on some basic but essential skills that are needed if Thailand is to transition to a knowledge-based economy, similar to what Korea and Taiwan are doing now. Based on my work with university students, skills that should be taught better during secondary and high school include the habit to read, the ability to locate relevant information, and the ability to digest different sources to build one's own understanding of a subject. I was going to add the ability to express oneself orally and in writing, but that can be taught at university level (although it would be nice if students could arrive at university with some skills in that area already).

Another weak point I see is the ability to take initiatives, but that's more a cultural problem than an educational one.

[astral]

There is little point in improving the curriculum unless:

1. The quality of teaching staff can be dramatically improved

2. The mode of teaching becomes less rote and more thought process oriented

3. The size of classes can be reduced.

[Scott]

In order to improve the quality of teachers, you need to first have a curriculum for them to teach. Otherwise, it's putting the cart before the horse.

Schools everywhere hang on to "old" methods and outdated subject material, but in spite of this many children manage to learn. One of the problems I see, at least in the private school sector, is that they just push too much material on them--where I work the students take everything from Caligraphy to Moral Education to Music--none of which is bad--but everyone has to take all of these. Then they get a huge chunk of English and tons of homework. This prevents them from enjoying learning or focusing on anything. It also prevents them from doing the kind of exploration of interests outside of school. None of the students where I work has anything remotely resembling a hobby or an interest.

Rote learning of course has to be reduced and and emphasis put on learning to learn and thinking.

[JR Texas]

They don't care. Keep the poor uneducated so they won't/daren't rise up against the rich.

Having seen it up close and personal as a visiting professor, I can say with certainty that "they don't care." The administrators--all of which are corrupt to the core--should be fired. That would be a good starting point.

One school experience in the NE does not an "expert" make....

Odd that you would assume, incorrectly, that my only experience with the "system" was in the NE at a university. WRONG! I have been a scholar in Asia for over two decades........and in Thailand I have taught at or been affiliated with several academic institutions......and more, but no need to elaborate. I know more about the system than you think. My opinion is valid.

[JR Texas]

"Having seen it up close and personal as a visiting professor, I can say with certainty that "they don't care." The administrators--all of which are corrupt to the core--should be fired. That would be a good starting point."

That is a generalisation not borne out by my observation at KKU.

There may be some adminisrators in some universities doing some discreditable things. And there may be some overstaffing of their bureaucratic systems that could be trimmed and still 'fit for purpose'. But I have come across a number of caring administrators (and ajaarns), so that knocks out "they don't care" and "all ... corrupt".

KKU seems to me to have about the same proprtions of 'goodies' and 'not-so-goodies' that I found in the five Western universities with which I have had close involvement.

Recently, I read a description by an Economics Anthropologist of universities as "institutions for the certification, creation, and recreation of the middle class". There may be exceptions to that, but not in the six that I know well. And in those terms, I think that Thailand's universities may be serving Thailand as well as universities in other countries that the UNESCO man knows well.

Clearly the OP is a reporter's brief summary of (or set of extracts from) a bigger statement by the UNESCO man. If anybody has a link, or can give a lead, to the man's full presentation, we could have a useful debate. But this 'report' is too brief to base any judgments on.

OK........I did stretch the truth a bit ....but not by much. And, yes, KKU is one of the best places.......but that is not saying much. Corruption is as thick as honey on a bears paw.

I also agree that many ajarns are trying to do their best.......but I am talking about the high-level officials that are swimming in a cesspool of corrupt money.....cheating the students left and right.....taking gross advantage of the system.......dipping their honey-coated paws in.......

I must be hungry for honey and pancakes.

As an aside.......you should hear what some UN officials say about the "academic system" when off duty........they make what I have stated seem like an understatement. It is common knowledge that corruption is widespread.

[Martin]

'pete_r' said, in post#9:

"Based on my work with university students, skills that should be taught better during secondary and high school include the habit to read, the ability to locate relevant information, and the ability to digest different sources to build one's own understanding of a subject..........................................

Another weak point I see is the ability to take initiatives, but that's more a cultural problem than an educational one."

I think it is very hard to distinguish between cultural and educational influences, as the one feeds back so much into the other.

It is a hierarchical society (but many have a bit of a half-hearted feeling that maybe becoming a democratic society might be advantageous), and individual initiative is a threat, not a thing to be encouraged, in a hierarchical society.

So school teachers won't encourage pupils to get the habit of reading. Instinctively, the school teacher will want the pupils only to read the 'officially-approved' set texts.

They won't set 'explore to find' exercises lest the pupils come across 'seditious' material in their explorations.

Nor will they want their pupils to build an understanding that differs from the 'official' one.

Early in my study for my MA-by-research, I found it appropriate to take a look at where Future Study had got to in the twenty five years since I had touched on it.

I found that it had matured into Futures Studies, with the realisation that there are many possible 'futures', dependant on the choices made in actions taken in 'presents'.

But it was nowhere to be found in the Thai academic scene.

(So I ended up taking an on-line course "Introduction to Futures Studies" from the University of Hawai'i, but that's another story.)

At first, I was puzzled about its absence from Thailand, but then I came to the thought that it reflects Thailand's hierarchical culture and society. Good manners in a hierarchical society will preclude conjecturing about the future as that may usurp the prerogative of those 'above' to decide what will happen.

No wonder that one detects some strains between academics here who have had some longstanding immersion in an educational institution in the West and their colleagues who haven't.

I sometimes catch a flicker of an expression and think that a thought has run through the mind of one of them:"What do they know of Thailand, who only Thailand know?"

We live in interesting times in an interesting place, and the UNESCO visitor's comments need to be considered in context.

[Bagwan]

When seeking a suitable education facility for my wife's daughter I was taken aback by the arrogance of some of the Head Teachers. I had to point out to some of them that as money was involved I was a customer, that I expected to be treated as same and that I had the choice of spending my money elsewhere. Rather than they deciding whether they wanted the young lady in their midst, it was a case of me deciding that the facilities, the curriculum and the teacher's professional standards met my approval. This came as something of a culture shock to them.

Some three months after settling her into the best school that I could find, my step daughter, obviously struggling with her homework, asked me to show her how to find the cube root of a number. <deleted>? Knowing this would help her to make a decent living in the world? Later that evening three of her friends visited on a social call. I asked all four of them what 30% of 200 was. None could answer correctly. When I confronted the Head Mistress of the school, she pretended that she didn't understand English and refused to discuss the matter. Is it any wonder that those holding degrees (huh!) need a calculator to tot up a bill?

[jumnien]

What a lovely country Thailand is to live in! Obviously, they've been doing something right in educating their people. In the West, people have absolutely no emotional intelligence developed by their barbaric educational system - they just easily become frustrated when things don't go their way. The Thai system instills acceptance which is the key to happiness!

[PeaceBlondie]

Recently, I discussed this with my friend who teaches and tutors Japanese, Europeans, Brits, Americans, Koreans, Thais, Singaporeans, et al, at a local international school. She finds that the Thais (who pay enormous fees by Thai standards to attend, while the aliens can easily afford the fees) struggle daily with the simplest academic tests, and arrive at the school unable to think independently. The other Asian students ask questions which the Thais would not usually ask, and give thoughtful answers that would seldom cross the Thai mind. The contrast (seen only at international schools, apparently) is startling. The other Asian students not only have sharp math skills (as do many Thai students), but can tackle word problems and "what if..." scenarios far better. She doesn't report any cube root problems other than obvious ones like 216 or 27. I taught M1 and saw the M2 final exam for Thais; no difficult cube roots there. She says percentage and ratio problems are standard fare in 7th grade Western curricula. And, no multiple choice questions! After reading a standard Western text (seasonally, Dickens Christmas Carol), 7th graders must write a good paragraph answering, "Why did Scrooge change his behaviour after seeing the three ghosts? How did Tiny Tim feel at Christmas?"I could never have put that on an M4 or M6 exam.

///added///Percentage is covered in M1, but not in such a way that the students can learn to apply it in real life. It doesn't stick or it doesn't reach to practical experience.

[PhilHarries]

On how to improve highereducational institutes in Thailand, Shaeffer suggested that they should improve quality assessment and researches, reduce the number of unemployed graduates, and provide adequate libraries.

Another grandiose statement along the lines of "eliminate poverty", "stamp out disease", "bring peace to the middle east" and many more. These conferences are great at making sweeping statements of the blindingly obvious yet rarely does anything change. Not always the fault of the conference but more an indictment of modern society. Reduce the number of unemployed graduates - how? Sack unqualified workers and replace them with graduates? This sort of statement gives rise to the sort of spin doctoring we see applied to such statistics as unemployement in the UK. Great news people, we have completely eliminated unemployement amongst university graduates (failing to say that they are all stacking shelves in Tesco-Lotus).

Thai higher educational institutes should reach out more to communities

Again, how? Organise nice little tours of the countryside stopping off in little villages showing the people what wonderful institutions exist that their children, thanks to the cr@p lower educational facilities and their grinding poverty, have absolutely no chance of ever going to.

Sorry, but I am getting sick and tired of all these conference jollies where the assembled, selected, glitterati pat each other on the back, make sweeping empty statements and enjoy a good meal with plenty of wine after. Surprised they didn't produce a "roadmap" as that seems to be the latest meaningless w@nkword in the dictionary for these kind of events.

OK, rant mode disabled.

[Prakanong]

Recently, I discussed this with my friend who teaches and tutors Japanese, Europeans, Brits, Americans, Koreans, Thais, Singaporeans, et al, at a local international school. She finds that the Thais (who pay enormous fees by Thai standards to attend, while the aliens can easily afford the fees) struggle daily with the simplest academic tests, and arrive at the school unable to think independently. The other Asian students ask questions which the Thais would not usually ask, and give thoughtful answers that would seldom cross the Thai mind. The contrast (seen only at international schools, apparently) is startling. The other Asian students not only have sharp math skills (as do many Thai students), but can tackle word problems and "what if..." scenarios far better. She doesn't report any cube root problems other than obvious ones like 216 or 27. I taught M1 and saw the M2 final exam for Thais; no difficult cube roots there. She says percentage and ratio problems are standard fare in 7th grade Western curricula. And, no multiple choice questions! After reading a standard Western text (seasonally, Dickens Christmas Carol), 7th graders must write a good paragraph answering, "Why did Scrooge change his behaviour after seeing the three ghosts? How did Tiny Tim feel at Christmas?"I could never have put that on an M4 or M6 exam.

///added///Percentage is covered in M1, but not in such a way that the students can learn to apply it in real life. It doesn't stick or it doesn't reach to practical experience.

I keep harping on about this but our Thai staff are among the best we have in the region (and possibly worldwide).

They usually only employ those with a oversea's degree except in one case but then they spent almost every summer in the USA for years. They tell me its due to the English languge skills required that they need an undergrad or post-grad from oversea's and while that may be so I am sure the what-if qustions and different approach to problem solving plays a part in their work - they seem to be able to bridge the gap as to what is required in Thailand and what the "Western" corporate world wants.

I do have experience of the other side too asking, "Somchai have you finished?", "Yes Mr", "Show me somchai", "Maybe tomorrow"

[h90]

They don't care. Keep the poor uneducated so they won't/daren't rise up against the rich.

Having seen it up close and personal as a visiting professor, I can say with certainty that "they don't care." The administrators--all of which are corrupt to the core--should be fired. That would be a good starting point.

That would mean no administration at all.

[Martin]

'PhilHarries' said in post #18:

"Sorry, but I am getting sick and tired of all these conference jollies where the assembled, selected, glitterati pat each other on the back, make sweeping empty statements and enjoy a good meal with plenty of wine after."

I take his point, but the conference organisers have to get 'bums on seats'.

If I go to a conference, I expect that the majority will fit his description. However I expect to find a minority, maybe 20%, who have 'brains worth picking'. Although the conference as a whole may be disappointing, I have never come away from one totally 'emptyhanded'. I have always found at least one or two equally-subversive minds with whom to consort.

We are discussing here a brief report as concocted by a reporter and editor.

It may well be only a 'ten minute job' resulting from a skim reading of a press-release with an advance-copy of the speech attached.

For all we know a small number of delegates may have, in quiet coffee-time conversation, checked with each other about their feelings that 90% of the speech was way off-beam, but one or two points might be worth following up.

As a young engineering teacher nearly fifty years ago, I worked for a while in a very down-to-earth college in Northern England.

The word 'student' was never heard, as they were always referred to as 'clients'.

Lecturing was 'treading the boards'.

Tutorial class conducting was 'at the chalkface'. And it was explained to me that the mining analogy was a good one----tons of mixed rock, slate and various sorts of coal were hewn to get a few hundredweight of good stuff.

So we shouldn't be surprised that these conferences of academics reflect conditions in academia.

Among the students there will only be a few who are exemplary and most will fall into the Western categories of "only here for the lager and the lasses' or "nowt but a husband-hunter".

The trick is for the exemplary learners to latch on to the exemplary teachers, and vice versa.

For an in-depth study of how professors here and Thai students of Social Studies have to cope with a system that has 'just growed' like Topsy in the primary and secondary schools and how one university (CMU) has had to take steps to cope with their intake being so strangely 'prepared', I recommend "Thai Images: the culture of the public world" by Niels Mulder (Silkworm 1997).

[thaigene2]

Too many low-grade "Universities", with too many ill-equipped ajarns, churning out too many unqualified students (everyone gets 80%, right?), in a country where no one is taught to think for themselves. If the last question that ever comes to a student's mind is "WHY", then you are in the midst of a society that's in big trouble - facing a grim future.

Improve the basic curriculum?

Well that's a start I guess...but only a start. Corruption, a rigid patronistic society, a class system that by its very nature has no interest in improving state schools or the learning environment, while it snears at egalitarianism (calls "populism" politics for 'stupid' people), is geared to excluding the masses from ever competing with their own kids. Why would they want to make it easier for a bright kid from Isan to compete with their kids in Bangkok?

I get nauseated reading these sucky biographies of the Bangkok socialite-kids in The Nation, etc, who've returned with their $100,000 Harvard Business School degree and then brag about how they came up with the novel idea to open a chain of coffee shops to compete with Starbucks....Problem is, a young Isan woman is also selling 25 Baht cafe-yen right outside on the kerb.

Edited December 21, 2007 by thaigene2

[JR Texas]

They don't care. Keep the poor uneducated so they won't/daren't rise up against the rich.

Having seen it up close and personal as a visiting professor, I can say with certainty that "they don't care." The administrators--all of which are corrupt to the core--should be fired. That would be a good starting point.

That would mean no administration at all.

I think if they actually did fire all of the current administrators the system would at least be open for positive change......but corrupt people would soon creep in to fill the void. Solution? No idea and no longer care.......Thailand has had it......RIP.

[tijnebijn]

Wonder if the junta will understand the word curriculum