The Long Road Ahead To Educational Reform In Thailand

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CHALK TALK

The long road ahead to reform

By Chularat Saengpassa

The Nation

Deputy Education Minister Chaiyos Chiramethakorn

Throughout 2010, the second round of educational reform has been the big buzzword among educators. Relevant agencies are also working hard to ensure the reform went on smoothly and efficiently till 2019.

News reports on this educational reform have come up every now and then with so many brainstorming sessions plus plans.

But is there any real progress yet?

The answer is that things are just slowly building up. At the heart of this reform is the plan to boost the quality of teachers. The concept is simple. If the country gets good teachers, it should get good students and good graduates, too. But how? To draw quality teachers into the system, does it need a simplified work process, high salary, or attractive career path, or all?

Whatever, it will take years to know and years for the educational reform to deliver a good result.

In September, Deputy Education Minister Chaiyos Chiramethakorn revealed that only 948 students were recruited for the "NewGeneration Teachers Project" for the 2009 academic year.

The pivotal project in fact expected to recruit 2,000 students but could pick less than half because most applicants could not pass the criteria of having the gradepointaverage of 3.00 up.

High qualifications are set in the hope of getting great inputs for good teachers.

Participants in this project will have to complete a fiveyear course of study. After their graduation, they are guaranteed teaching jobs.

Chaiyos, who chairs the NewGeneration Teachers panel, said that starting from the 2011 academic year participants in the project would be required to complete a sixyear course of study after which they would get a master degree.

The graduates, who will earn nearly Bt20,000 a month, will start working in 2017.

If so, what will the country's educational sector be like prior to the arrival of the newgeneration teachers?

The Education Ministry has explained that it will seek to remotivate and boost the skills of current teachers too. There are now more than 400,000 teachers nationwide.

Next year, the Education Ministry will encourage current teachers to reform themselves into newstyle teachers.

According to educators, newstyle teachers' performance will be evaluated based on their students' performance.

"If they get good evaluation, they will be able to climb up in academic rank," an educator behind the initiative explained.

Newstyle teachers should be able to deliver results sooner than the newgeneration teachers, if the political will for the project does not die down. In the past, a great project to groom quality teachers flopped in the end because political office holders changed the country's educational policies.

Apart from the second round of educational reform, the country's educational sector has been excited about the preparations for the Asean Economic Community too.

The 10 Asean nations, including Thailand, will become economically integrated by 2015.

The Education Ministry therefore is obliged to pull out plans to prepare Thais for the drastic change.

Education Council secretary general Tongthong Chandransu promised to unveil the strategies next year.

So, we can expect to see plenty of plans coming in the near future. But as for results, we will have to wait for quite a long time to see them and no one knows yet whether the goals will be achieved.

There was much hope when the first round of educational reform started a decade ago. But today, that reform has still left a lot to be desired.

-- The Nation 2010-12-20

[Ijustwannateach]

Sounds like a lot of newspeak.

The elephant in the room is that the teaching 'biz' is as conservative and seniority-driven as any civil service agency in Thailand can be- the more so because its poor apparent benefits and salaries give those participating no choice but to collaborate in all the 'tea-money' schemes, and no tangible rewards for true performance or innovation- rather the opposite, because outperforming 'seniors' or instituting real reform would be threatening to them. For true reform, along with the bill for training the new teachers, you have to pay the bill to get the old school to retire- and that's a BIG bill.

[screamingeagle]

To fail an exam is to loose face. so most students "pay" to pass the exam..........

[Phatcharanan]

To fail an exam is to loose face. so most students "pay" to pass the exam..........

Lose face.

Actually, I doubt most students pay. The Thai teachers would 'reorganise' the grades in any event. There is 'face' involved on both sides.

[nickjam]

Sounds like a lot of newspeak.

The elephant in the room is that the teaching 'biz' is as conservative and seniority-driven as any civil service agency in Thailand can be- the more so because its poor apparent benefits and salaries give those participating no choice but to collaborate in all the 'tea-money' schemes, and no tangible rewards for true performance or innovation- rather the opposite, because outperforming 'seniors' or instituting real reform would be threatening to them. For true reform, along with the bill for training the new teachers, you have to pay the bill to get the old school to retire- and that's a BIG bill.

I couldn't agree with you more. The real enemy to reform is middle management and other old farts in lofty positions with their feet on their desks and heads up their asses. I have heard of many examples of corruption from senior school and university professors who demand bribes for pay rises/promotions. I'm lucky enough to work in International Schools but the problems still persist there. I was referred to as "a farang causing trouble" when I had the nerve to challenge an unidentified man on school property who was acting strangely around my kids. This came from the principal! Suggesting improvements to school curriculum or practices is always perceived as a complaint or an annoyance.

Let the politicians talk and give sound bites, anyone who has worked in Thai schools expects little change.

[jaltsc]

If one is intelligent enough to meet these standards, one is intelligent enough to realize that there is a lot more money to be earned in another profession, without having to deal with the backlash from the under qualified teachers in the present establishment. The English skills of the person who is the head of the program in the local high school makes a common bar girl look like and Oxford scholar. Somehow I would not be surprised that the other department heads are no different. It might sound like an extreme measure, but the best way to establish a better educational system in Thailand would be to terminate every teacher and rehire only the ones who qualify to adequately teach their subjects, regardless of how much face is lost. I believe that will happen when the Thai football team wins the World Cup.

[asiawatcher]

I am not sure who they think will work for 20,000 Baht a month in 2017? Who works all this crap out?

This may be a step in the right direction but would you put your children's future in the hands of a 20,000 Baht a month teacher 6 years from now? Go check what the internationals and bilingual teachers get at present and come to somewhere between the two and you will get more teachers who have the incentive both financially and honourably.

[ThaiRich]

Hoo Hum, twiddle dee, twiddle dum.

[Mario2008]

Maybe they should start with giving less administrative work to teachers. For many teachers teaching seems to be a side job, as they are too busy with managing the administration of the school.

[lucien62]

I'm sick of seeing so many students taking extra courses from the countless tuition centers. Those centers have found a very lucrative way to make money on the kids' precious education because of the school's incompetence. Ok, some centers are probably doing a good job and care more about the kids' future than profit...

Everything is commercialized, I'm waiting for the days we will have to pay to enter shopping malls...