Thailand To Hire 300 Native English-Speaking Teachers

[george]

SHORTAGE OF ENGLISH TEACHERS

Plan to hire native English-speaking teachers

BANGKOK: -- The Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) will seek a Bt350-million budget to hire 300 native English-speaking teachers for its primary and secondary schools to tackle the shortage of English teachers, a senior official said yesterday.

According to the proposal, the native speakers would each get about Bt1 million per year - a salary of Bt83,000 per month - compared with the Bt9,000 per month drawn by Thais teaching English.

Obec chief Chinaphat Phumirat said the foreign teachers would be from the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, India and the Philippines.

Obec's secondary schools currently have only 25,000 Thai teachers who have graduated in the English language, while primary schools have 5,000 such teachers. He said the move in 2010 to employ 3,000 Thais who had graduated in the English language to teach at its primary schools had boosted the students' academic results greatly. Obec hence felt encouraged to consider employing more native speakers to teach at its schools.

Chinaphat said Obec was coordinating with the Foreign Ministry to recruit the native English-speakers, possibly retired teachers or teaching graduates in their fourth year of study who wanted to get experience in Thailand. They would be given annual contracts and would teach at district-level schools, he said.

Meetings will be held from April 22-24 to discuss the plan before it is submitted for the Cabinet's approval in May, he said. The plan would need a Bt350-million budget to hire 300 teachers for the period October 2011 to October 2012.

He said the plan was a five-year project aimed at hiring 1,000 teachers. However, they would hire 300 teachers in the first year to screen them first.

-- The Nation 2011-03-29

Edited March 30, 2011 by george
Added more text from The Nation

[dunkin2012]

good.... and welcome ..to LOS

New folks

[transam]

India, I am English and l can't understand their English.

[TehBen]

Is an official language the same as a native language?

The reason I ask is because I thought that English was only an official language of The Philippines as opposed to a native language...

Edited March 29, 2011 by benavenell

[Scott]

India and the Philippines?

[dumball]

Indian and Phillapinos ? You ever noticed the heavy , over-riding accents these people have ? They are being considered to teach English , let the people pray it is understandable spoken English .

[TehBen]

I have met Filipinos that I can understand easier than some Americans.

Obviously, no offence intended.

[Nawtier]

Oh my goodness gracious me...

[Scuzzy]

India, I am English and l can't understand their English.

haha! you must be jealous that hiring professionals would cut into the market share of the skanks that pretend to be teachers in Thailand.

[Scuzzy]

Indian and Phillapinos ? You ever noticed the heavy , over-riding accents these people have ? They are being considered to teach English , let the people pray it is understandable spoken English .

Maybe you should think again considering the fact you can't even spell. Have your heard the heavy over-riding accents that some people from the UK speak with... haha

[LaoPo]

.......".......hire 300 native English-speaking teachers for its primary and secondary schools.......

300 teachers for primary and secondary schools in a country with 66 million people ?

A drop in the ocean...

LaoPo

[dunkin2012]

India, I am English and l can't understand their English.

True.... Indian English is one of the most difficult people to understand.... cos they speak fast but they don't notice that we ain't get any of what they say...

The Philippines English ain't too bad ... They have good sense of understanding English...

Both of these have educated and trained their new generations to speak proper English... A number of international colleges there..

One of my colleagues from the Philippines can speak perfect English.... I asked her if she studied in an international college? she said no..her reply.... Manila University...

I don't talk about the old generations.

You guys need to compete with 'em too..

[Scott]

Oh, let's take care in our posting. I think we can avoid trashing any particular nationality.

It's unusual for a country to target native speakers from a country where English is generally a second language, even if it is widely used.

I have met/worked with people from both the Philippines and India who had excellent English--both written and spoken. Because of their country of origin, they were required to pass an English Language Proficiency Exam.

[jackinbkk]

not trying to be offensive but can you imagine when a Thai learns English from an Indian who learned from another Indian or a Filipino.

The effect is like a snowball.

Theres also the idea of speaking a language versus understanding a language. If you've ever outsourced to India you'll know what I mean.

[spud1]

Indian and Phillapinos ? You ever noticed the heavy , over-riding accents these people have ? They are being considered to teach English , let the people pray it is understandable spoken English .

Maybe you should think again considering the fact you can't even spell. Have your heard the heavy over-riding accents that some people from the UK speak with... haha

Have your heard?

[dunkin2012]

.......".......hire 300 native English-speaking teachers for its primary and secondary schools.......

300 teachers for primary and secondary schools in a country with 66 million people ?

A drop in the ocean...

LaoPo

Objection.............. 09 .... they have 67.764 10 and 11 I don't know ... expect to be 68-69 MP

and not all of 'em in education system..... several MP still to be considered.... but not all 68-69 MP though

[Daren]

Unless Thailand is willing to adopt some practices followed in Western education, the teachers will not be able to influence the areas which are in desperate need of development. There are a large number of reoccurring problems in Western/Thai classrooms, and unless they are addressed from the top-down, no real improvements are possible.

The fear of failure is a real motivator, but the system for failing students is just a sham here. Students are obviously pushed on through the grades regardless of the academic achievements. Most of the good, certified western teachers I meet over here complain endlessly about this issue.

A much larger difference which continually create problems in "farang-led" classrooms is that westerner students are taught and encouraged to be individualistic and act as free-thinkers. Thais typically do not value those sorts of skills, and in fact they are discouraged subtly and overtly. Raising one's hand in class is often seen a sign that that student doesn't understand - something which is terribly embarrassing in the group-think environment.

Of course, the west doesn't have a corner on education and they're not doing everything correctly, but there has been a LOT of good work done in the last 30 or 40 years which has not been adopted here in the Land of Smiles.

Edited March 29, 2011 by Daren

[lannarebirth]

Am I mistaken or is'nt the proposed salary at least 200% + greater than what English teachers here generally mak?

[Macmundi]

Let me remind you all that China is not improving their English. If you want to do business with them, you must learn Chinese. English a the thing of the past. We did business with the west, but it looks like business with the west will soon be devoured by the Chinese. Why do you think so many westerners have started to send their kids over to places like Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Hong Kong. etc? What is the education minister thinking? Don't get me wrong. Finding quality English teachers is excellent. I've seen Italian English teachers (who couldn't even speak proper English) teaching in one of those language schools in BKK. It was so ridiculous. Hiring just about anyone off the streets just because they are 'farang'. With that aside, why is Chinese any less important?:ermm:

[whatsupdoc]

There's plenty of people from Indian descent who have a far better command of the English language than the average British bloke wandering around in Thailand.....

It's better to have a good teacher from India (or any other country where English is not the first language) than a bad native speaker.

[transam]

Native English can accommodate English speakers from another county, but for them

to teach it with the correct dialogue/pronunciation is another thing.

[petedk]

According to the proposal, the native speakers would each get about Bt1 million per year - a salary of Bt83,000 per month - compared to the Bt9,000 per month drawn by Thais teaching English.

What about increasing the salaries of teachers already in Thailand? Those of us working for government haven't received an increase in more than 15 years and still get an official salary of about 28,000 baht per month.

[dumball]

'Scuzzy' timestamp='1301406549' post='4320793']

dumball' timestamp='1301405847' post='4320751']

Indian and Phillapinos ? You ever noticed the heavy , over-riding accents these people have ? They are being considered to teach English , let the people pray it is understandable spoken Englis

Maybe you should think again considering the fact you can't even spell. Have your heard the heavy over-riding accents that some people from the UK speak with... haha

Scuzzy by name , scuzzy by nature , what is your problem with my spelling ? What has that to do with passing an opinion on an open forum ?

I have been subjected to all kinds of accents in my time and they have not bothered me , but students should be given the best of advantages possible .

[sunholidaysun1]

Why get native English teachers other than from England ? I am all for teachers speaking English if they actually teach English rather than a derivative of the English language . American English is different , so is Philippine and no doubt different again from Australia . Its all about the accent as well , pronunciation of words . I wish the Thai's luck in what they are trying to do but to start with they need someone to guide the education authority in Thailand, from the English education department in England, then maybe there is a good chance the standard will improve, if of course the students are willing to learn.

[dumpling]

I think any move that shows they are thinking about the problem here is good but I have to say this country being what it is how much of that money will (if they get it, 83k) filters down to actually hiring teachers will have to be seen to be believed.

I know there are many excellent and dedicated teachers here who deserve a much needed increase or chance of increase in their salary.

This is also good for the government school system as it provides more cash for them to compete with hiring against private schools.

Edited March 29, 2011 by dumpling

[davejonesbkk]

A shortage of English teachers? Do they mean nationwide? If so then surely 300 is a drop in the ocean?

[kuffki]

To be fair, Filipino's speak very good, clear English with American accent. Also having to learn English as a second language in my opinion gives teacher better perspective on things, because unlike native speakers, the ones who had to learn it may know some ins and outs as what is crystal clear to a native speaker is not so for others.

However India, i am having trouble understanding the thinking there.

All and i mean All Indian, English speaking people i ever come across (not born in English speaking country) have a really bad accent which makes it very hard to understand. The speech is not clear and very often very confusing.

It may not sound different to a non English speaking Thai, but i am sure will make a huge different for students trying to learn the language and pronunciation.

[kuffki]

A shortage of English teachers? Do they mean nationwide? If so then surely 300 is a drop in the ocean?

i think there are plenty of native English speaking teachers to go around or willing to take up the job. However low salary's and almost impossible bureaucracy to obtain work permit makes it very unappealing to any decent teacher or even reasonable person to even give it a try

Edited March 29, 2011 by kuffki

[jonclark]

An admirable attempt, but still lacking the one thing that is needed throughout the entire education system, A modern curriculum and syllabus for the kids to learn from. Not antiquated, half arsed worksheets or textbooks which lack factual information, formative and summative testing which examines both skills and knowledge, and most importantly national guidelines and standards.

As it stands what syllabus will these new teachers be implementing is ...make it up as you go along. As usual big headline but <deleted> all substance.

[BKK03]

This is real food for thought. Lets see, native English speakers from India, a salary of Bt83,000 per month, and a good mix of English teachers from across the world. Now I am wondering what the inter-school staff-to native English teacher, and teacher to teacher relationships will be like. No doubt the environment will be one that promotes learning for the children, and supportive for the staff and teachers. After all, educators and school staff members aren't really concerned about Bath. Their main focus is on education, not how much pay each individual receives monthly.