Thailand Falling Behind

[cojones]

EDUCATION: Thailand lagging behind globally

Published on November 09, 2004

Unesco urges improvement as Kingdom comes in at number 60 in worldwide poll

Thailand performed poorly in a recent Unesco education survey, with South Korea topping the list of 18 other Asian countries polled.

Norway came first in Unesco’s Education for All development index poll, which focused on universal primary education, adult literacy, education quality and gender parity as the main criteria.

The report stressed that quality teachers is a “critical investment” to improving the level of education and that governments must make this a primary budgetary concern, said Koichiro Matsuura, the director-general of Unesco.

Governments face the challenge of how to improve recruitment, training and conditions of service in order to encourage more people to join the teaching profession, he said.

Thailand, which spent 5.1 per cent of its GNP on education in 2001, is considered among those in the middle group that is “well on the way to achieving some of the goals, but are being held back by slow progress on others, notably quality”, the report said.

Thailand was surpassed by Poland, Argentina, Chile, Kazakhstan, Romania, Mexico, Jordan, China and Uruguay, among others.

Vietnam came in at 64, Indonesia was 65 and the Philippines came in at 70 in the survey. Malaysia and Singapore are not included in the table.

South Korea, which spends 3.6 per cent of its GNP on education, ranked fourth best performer among 127 countries. Japan was not included in the survey, officially released in Brazil yesterday.

Unesco said most Asian countries were bogged down by factors that hamper the quality of education, such as lack of financial resources, facilities and adequately-trained teachers.

“Overcrowded classes, poorly qualified teachers and ill-equipped schools with scant learning materials remain an all too familiar picture in many countries,” Matsuura said.

“What children learn and how they learn can make or break their school experience and their subsequent opportunities in life.”

The report said South Korea achieved universal primary education and gender parity in both primary and secondary levels. The South Korean government views education as vital to economic expansion.

The country has also given strong focus on improving the quality since the 1980s. South Korean teachers also enjoy extensive training as well as better incentives and the government funds a network of research institutes through an education tax.

East Asia, including vastly populated countries like China and Indonesia, is on the whole moving away from the goal of universal primary education, but quality remains a challenge, the report states.

It says pre-primary education has improved over the last decade in Cambodia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Given the participation level, a child in the region can expect about one year of pre-primary education and at least 11 years of general education.

In 2000, salaries for teachers in Asia were the second lowest worldwide at a ratio of 2.9 per cent of GDP by region, next only to Latin America with 2.3 per cent.

The report further notes that the salaries of teachers compared with other professions have declined steadily over the past two decades and are often too low to provide a reasonable standard of living.

Thailand’s statistics show 82 per cent of net enrolment ratio in primary education and 50 per cent of adult literacy. The ratio is 63 per cent of gender-specific EFA index and 82 per cent of net enrolment ratio in primary education, 63 per cent of gender-specific EFA index and 54 per cent of survival rate to Grade 5.

For more details about the survey, visit www.efareport.unesco.org

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i have heard about several thai teachers who recently committed suicide after being driven so hard by their school directors that they took their life .

they just keep piling them up with more work out of school hours and they just cant cope . the school director just wants to keep getting brownie points and is not concerned about their excessive workload .

[astral]

I am not sure about "falling behind", I don't think they ever caught up.

There has been a lot of talk about education reform here over the last few years,

but I do not think a lot has really changed.

Quite a worrying topic for those with children.

[Abandon]

I have first hand experience of universities here, and so I'm not a bit surprised. Teachers not turning up; ridiculous assignments, copying, cheating, and students who believe they have a right to diplomas just for turning up; teachers giving answers to exams......

[Jockstar]

I have first hand experience of universities here, and so I'm not a bit surprised. Teachers not turning up; ridiculous assignments, copying, cheating, and students who believe they have a right to diplomas just for turning up; teachers giving answers to exams......

So true. The Thai teachers are notorious for this. They cant help themselves. Its just the way it has always been. Myself and my other farang co workers get pissed with this. Slowly this is changing. At my school anyway. Theres nothing worse when you are trying to get kids to answer a question. You just want to check they understand. Then the Thai co teacher tells them the answer. Gets my back up.