We Need English Proficiency, Not Toys For The Thai Military

[webfact]

VENUS' VISION

We need English proficiency, not toys for the military

By Veena Thoopkrajae

The heartbreaking news that Thailand ranks 42nd of 44 countries in English proficiency give us the impression that we are going bust because our performance is not only bad but also far behind Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

I'm not panicking here. This isn't the first time we've been told our English isn't that good. The release of UK-based Eduction First's (EF) research only opens old wounds. More painful is to see Malaysia rank 9th and become the only high-proficiency English country outside Europe. We acknowledge the problem but the sad fact is that it remains without getting enough attention from policy-makers, the Education Ministry in particular.

There has been good news though. A few days before EF reminded us where we stand, the Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) announced it would seek a Bt350-million budget to hire 300 native English-speaking teachers and give them handsome salaries of Bt83,000 a month. The Foreign Ministry would help in recruitment of the qualified teachers. In its five-year plan, Obec expects to bring 1,000 qualified English teachers to Thailand.

Let's hope Obec's grand plan receives a nod from the Cabinet. Bt350 million is nothing considering that it is to lay a good foundation. Ask me to choose between the budget for English teachers and Bt7.7 billion for six old German submarines, and the answer should be obvious.

Who knows? If the plan gets a green light from the Cabinet, it could be the start of new era for English learning in Thailand.

But before we inject more native speakers into the system, we should first agree that we need a strong effort by all, and so many things need to be done. Here is my priority list.

Stop playing the patriot.

Maybe this government or the next can make our education policy one of English as a second language rather than a foreign language. Just when we saw light at the end of tunnel, the education minister cancelled the ESL policy last October, saying it could lead to the misunderstanding that Thailand had been colonised. We've heard so many stupid patriotic arguments before, but this is among the worst.

No more "catch me if you can".

The Bt83,000 salary that Obec plans to give English teachers is attractive enough to draw brilliant teachers - as opposed to just native speakers who can teach. Yet what really needs to be done is to facilitate their stay without interruption by frequent visa runs. The Education Ministry should not only cooperate with the Foreign Ministry in recruiting but also in giving a practical visa package.

Edward and Bella don't speak Thai.

Young people are into Hollywood films and TV series, so catch them young and wherever they are. If Edward and Bella from the hit "Twilight" can speak Thai, kids will not have an urge to understand them in English. So why don't we ban the dubbing of all films and foreign series? To compromise, give them English subtitles, so they learn more English than schools provide them with.

Everybody needs a friend.

Dear government, please don't fight this battle alone. Find friends who are willing to help. At least try to get the British and Americans involved, for they can help in providing good teachers or finding affordable teaching materials and so on. But before reaching for any helping hand, first and foremost show that you are determined to achieve the goal and make ESL a national agenda item.

Put English parks on the map.

In Madrid, Spain there is an actual physical environment to encourage everyone to gather and practice English. Why can't we have such an English park, where the government or big firms would foot the bill to bring celebrities who speak fluent English or celebrity teachers to mingle with youngsters. There are students out there who are willing to learn but can't afford the fees for special tuition schools.

Certainly, we know there are endless measures and plans that should be implemented to achieve such an ambitious goal. Rich countries may have more to spend on English education, but determination is what you have without spending.

If the government can allocate billions for useless weapons for the military, it has no excuse not to earmark a sufficient budget for English education. After all high-proficiency in English boosts the average national income and provides greater economic opportunities.

And another thing about learning English is that it doesn't make anyone colonised or less patriotic.

-- The Nation 2011-04-02

[endure]

What you need to do is to give all Thais, regardless of their rank or status, a decent education. It might mean that the rich will only be as rich next year as they are this year but it will delay or even prevent the eventual bloodbath.

[zzaa09]

What you need to do is to give all Thais, regardless of their rank or status, a decent education. It might mean that the rich will only be as rich next year as they are this year but it will delay or even prevent the eventual bloodbath.

How might one define a "decent education"?

[asiawatcher]

English by and large is the door opener to create the 'level' playing field the reds and all other colours need. To close the gap between rich and poor the uneducated need to be able to access what the real world is all about and not just what they are fed, unquestioned, by the Thai system.

[rkidlad]

What you need to do is to give all Thais, regardless of their rank or status, a decent education. It might mean that the rich will only be as rich next year as they are this year but it will delay or even prevent the eventual bloodbath.

How might one define a "decent education"?

By saying stuff like 'how might one?'

10 Years ago, teachers would look to earn 40,000 Baht a month with a degree and a TEFL cert. Now they're looking at 30 - 35,000 in Bkk. This suggests to me that a lot of institutions aren't taking English seriously and just profiting. Also, a lot of people who come here to teach and accept 30,35,000 Baht in Bkk - are also not taking it seriously.

It's all very sad.

[pisico]

What you need to do is to give all Thais, regardless of their rank or status, a decent education. It might mean that the rich will only be as rich next year as they are this year but it will delay or even prevent the eventual bloodbath.

How might one define a "decent education"?

Start by erasing Xenophobia first.

[hammered]

There is also the question of where these well paid teachers will get to teach. We all know that every province has a top school that it is not easy for anyone poor to get into and if they do then there is usually an english program that you have to pay more for which the poor dont have access to.

While intiatives to bring properly trained teachers in is good, the reality is that the whole education system needs looking at and reforming for the modern times. Unfortunately reforming any part of the bureaucracy in Thailand is almost impossible.

It is also not helped by the education ministry being regarded by politicians as a low grade one as you cant make much money out of it.

[Livinginexile]

I work with Thai's in the Middle East, there are a few Thai companies trying to crack the construction industry overseas but their main obsticle is their lack of English skills.

It's a shame, these engineers are world class and can easily compete with Fillipinos for overseas jobs but alas...no or little English skills.

Thailand is losing billions every year in what would be a very good income from Thai workers overseas sending their salaries home.

Me thinks it is a polcy from high up the ruling elite ladder to keep the poor poor. Only top Bkk elite get the oppertunity to learn English at any sort of professional manner.

What a shame Thailand!

Edited April 2, 2011 by Livinginexile

[fatfather]

300 teachers for the first and later 1000..... that's ridiculous.

The English teachers can't speak English, so why not teach them first. I know only Thailand where a teacher is allowed to teach English even he himself don't speak English. 1000 native speakers don't cure the misfit in education, neither on school level nor in the universties. As mentioned above, it is part of the Thai education system to keep the main part of population uneducated, so they are easier to manipulate. 1000 teachers are nothing more than a writen down thing to show ..."we do something"... but for sure it is not a really attempt to solve a problem. Its just an eyewash.....

fatfather

[nikster]

Thailand is a bit unfortunate that it's always been big enough and rich enough to have little incentive to learn English. TV and movies are produced here, as is music and other media, and it's all pretty good - comparatively speaking.

Education is generally terrible - one look at our village school is all you need to know, really. It's a joke. It's a place where people can leave their kids for a few hours but they're not learning anything - and if they are, it's stupid stuff like how to be quiet, and how to behave. Detrimental to development, actually - in a Thai school you learn how to not ask questions and how to accept the status quo.

IMO the only way out of this is government education loans for poor kids - a wide-spread program by which poor(er) kids can apply for and receive government money to go to a school of their choosing. That's under the assumption that it's impossible to fix the public school system - better to rely on the private sector to educate more of the population.

Private schools in Thailand are quite good, and more good ones pop up all the time - provided you have enough money you can go there. In addition, most Thais do care about education for their kids. At least the ones I know.

As for hiring more English teacher - somebody needs to figure out how an influential group can make $Bns in kickbacks from the program - then it's going to happen right quick. That's really the main reason the military buys equipment: So somebody can profit. The more expensive the equipment, the better the kickbacks. Hence, old submarines - they're perfect!

[TimeBandit2]

The entire culture is arrayed against the English language like the frickin' Maginot Line. What does penetrate the culture is perverted into cutesy "tap slop" with International shortened to "Inter" and other such nonsense.

The education "system" is no help, since Thai parents hate anything effective or appropriate and private schools will do anything to keep them happy. Government schools are filled with Thai teachers who teach "Engrish," and when administrators get a budget to hire foreign staff most of the salary get corruptioned away and they hire a white-faced clown that they can abuse.

Thais will never learn English. Ever.

I don't want to hear "my Thai friend speaks great English," I mean society at large is hostile to it. Thais reject it like a organ transplant from a squid.

[Pi Sek]

As mentioned above, it is part of the Thai education system to keep the main part of population uneducated, so they are easier to manipulate.

Hence new legislation passed for further free schooling for all.

[Pi Sek]

The entire culture is arrayed against the English language like the frickin' Maginot Line. What does penetrate the culture is perverted into cutesy "tap slop" with International shortened to "Inter" and other such nonsense.

The education "system" is no help, since Thai parents hate anything effective or appropriate and private schools will do anything to keep them happy. Government schools are filled with Thai teachers who teach "Engrish," and when administrators get a budget to hire foreign staff most of the salary get corruptioned away and they hire a white-faced clown that they can abuse.

Thais will never learn English. Ever.

I don't want to hear "my Thai friend speaks great English," I mean society at large is hostile to it. Thais reject it like a organ transplant from a squid.

That's a very incisive post. It's incisive because it's cutting and because it's a very good appraisal of what would probably happen.

edit - my Thai friend sa-peek veh-wee guud Eng-a-rit.

Edited April 2, 2011 by Pi Sek

[elshaheen]

What you need to do is to give all Thais, regardless of their rank or status, a decent education. It might mean that the rich will only be as rich next year as they are this year but it will delay or even prevent the eventual bloodbath.

How might one define a "decent education"?

By saying stuff like 'how might one?'

10 Years ago, teachers would look to earn 40,000 Baht a month with a degree and a TEFL cert. Now they're looking at 30 - 35,000 in Bkk. This suggests to me that a lot of institutions aren't taking English seriously and just profiting. Also, a lot of people who come here to teach and accept 30,35,000 Baht in Bkk - are also not taking it seriously.

It's all very sad.

That is true. Most of them figure that why stop at 40K, but see how low Native English Speakers are willing to work here in Thailand. Now, it's anywhere between 30K - 35K now. Next year, we don't really know the figures.

[TimeBandit2]

No self respecting qualified teacher would ever teach within the confines of the Thai education system. It doesn't matter if the salary is 83,000/month. The Thai education system goes against all of the best practices of education that qualified teachers in the west are trained to provide. Teaching in a Thai school would be equivalent to career suicide for a qualified teacher. Qualified teachers who want to teach abroad will continue to go to real international schools, which all pay a hell of a lot more than 83000/month when you factor in benefits.

---snip---

I worked with a teacher who had been recruited from Vermont. After a year she said that she felt she was a worse teacher than when she had arrived.

The schools, the parents and the culture all adore things are that are ineffective, counter-productive or (most innocuous!) a waste of time.

I call it "efficacy inversion."

Edited April 2, 2011 by TimeBandit2

[givenall]

English by and large is the door opener to create the 'level' playing field the reds and all other colours need. To close the gap between rich and poor the uneducated need to be able to access what the real world is all about and not just what they are fed, unquestioned, by the Thai system.

In my few years of experience in Thailand, Thai do what is needed to get by.never seen any Thai, except Chinese decent to take their future seriously

[EyesWideOpen]

The best running joke regarding spoken English is to visit Cambodia. There you will see endless young street kids that speak English far better than Thai college students. Why ?????? Desire is the simple answer. As long as Thailand persists in their " Asian Master Race" bullshit, their minds will always be closed to the concept of learning another language. This of course will isolate them and cost them money in the long run, but this is not easily seen.

Always interesting to visit Malaysia as well. Seems almost every person there speaks Malay, Chinese, and English. So either Malaysians are a hell of a lot smarter than Thais, or the educational system here is complete crap.........

[naboo]

Cambridge International Examinations offer an IGCSE in Thai language. The curriculum and examinations are written by Thais. This makes sense.

The Ministry of Education offers a single 'foreign languages' which all foreign languages have to be taught in accordance with, be it French, English, Chinese or Japanese. This curriculum is written by Thais in the Ministry of Education. Instead of putting energy into hiring 1000 more qualified teachers (20,000 hours a week of teaching across a guesstimated 15 million school children is a drop in the ocean), how about the Ministry of Education gets a highly qualified, hugely experienced native English speaker, someone from Oxford University's Trinity TESOL program for example, to write a realistic curriculum and exams that make sense, just like Cambridge International Examinations did for their Thai course.

When I was teaching English, I realised that my students were never going to make any progress if I followed the curriculum given as, by age 11, they were all so, so far behind because of unrealistic expectations of achievement each year. I also realised that given the class sizes of 40+, I was never going to make any difference to anything more than 10% of my students.

Until there's a major change in attitude at the Ministry of Education, nothing will improve English proficiency in Thailand. I'm now lucky enough to work in a place where we don't have to follow the government curriculum and students' English is improving rapidly. At age 11, we went back to basics with kids who had been in an EP for 5 years. Their vocabulary was wide and we created a curriculum that suited their needs. Unfortunately, the Thai national curriculum does not allow for this in most schools.

[jimbeam1]

Very well said. It is heartening to read such words from a Thai, someone who is not frightened to say it as it is. Well done Veena. I applaud you.

jb1

[mark45y]

Paint the submarines yellow and put speakers on them and have them buzz around broadcasting old Beetles tunes.

The submarines could do the coastal towns and the Army could be outfitted with uniforms and instruments and march into the interior doing Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.

These actions would involve the military in English lessons and everyone would be happy.

[ParadiseLost]

As mentioned earlier, television plays a huge role in the early development of a child's mind. I can recall programs I watched in the mid 1960's, programs which excited me about space travel (Star Trek, Lost In Space), Batman, Superman showed me how good always triumphs over evil (without graphic violence). There were many more.

Try as hard as I can, I cannot recall ever seeing the domestic violence, class domination and abject misery used as main themes for programs which are aired every hour of the day in Thailand. The humour is either slapstick or demeaning to the victim. None of this is having a good or beneficial effect on kids. I often see Thai kids, no older than 5 or 6 playing and I notice how violent they are. I see the same thing on the most popular soaps.

Kids emulate adults so it is a never ending cycle; the only way to break it is to introduce English language programs. Unfortunately most of the modern US or UK offerings seem to be heading in the opposite direction - nudity, violence and foul language are the latest vogue from what I see.

So I question why Thailand should actually bother with English; it makes more sense for them to embrace everything Chinese. Perhaps they have a fear of being swallowed up entirely (many believe it is inevitable, anyway) and recognise English as an investment in the future of their nation. However, English is not a big priority in China - instead western nations are rushing to educate their kids in Mandarin. They see the future where Thailand is waking up too late to English...

[landofthefree]

No self respecting qualified teacher would ever teach within the confines of the Thai education system. It doesn't matter if the salary is 83,000/month. The Thai education system goes against all of the best practices of education that qualified teachers in the west are trained to provide. Teaching in a Thai school would be equivalent to career suicide for a qualified teacher. Qualified teachers who want to teach abroad will continue to go to real international schools, which all pay a hell of a lot more than 83000/month when you factor in benefits.

Until the entire education system is overhauled nothing will change. This announcement by Obec is all lip service, as usual. There is no political will to change the education system. As has already been pointed out, the elite who run the country have no interest in educating the masses, on the contrary, it is in their best interests to keep them mindless and obedient. That way when they talk out of their ass about improving education (as they have for years), no one will call them on the fact that very little has changed.

It is absolutely laughable that they think they will attract 1000 qualified teachers to Thai schools by throwing 83000 baht at them. They would be much better served using the money to retrain the teachers they already have in methods that don't belong in the stone age, so that Thai students might be able to think for themselves. But we can't have that now, can we?

Agree absolutely. Can you imagine the Head of English 'Ajarn Somchai' and his Department welcoming and helping the new Teachers ? I don't think so..............If this idea ever got off the ground the only teachers that I imagine would be left after 1 year would be Indians and Fillipinos who from my experience are more tolerant than most to being treated with scorn, jealousy and indifference.

[boggle]

I speak vely good english. I spend long time in University to gain my bachelors degree. I no understand why Farang no speak good English. Maybe poor education and no go good university same same we have Thailand.

[Lannatyne]

Well, when Suthep (or whatever his name is) announces that he "has no respect for farangs", you can see how much they'll embrace the idea of a population able to understand the English language.

Even though Suthep's statement was about a different matter, the underlying attitude is so bloody obvious.

[rkidlad]

Most schools nowadays just want young, fresh and wet behind the ears university graduates. They can pay them peanuts, mess them about again and again, and the university graduates will still think they're lucky and honoured to work here. At the same time, most grads will be out on the piss, whoring it up, and they won't care about being remotely professional because they're not in a professional environment.

I worked for an agency once. I knew the main girl there and she was very nice. She was instructed by a school to find four new teachers. (This was private work on the side for her) The school changed their minds later and said they only want two teachers. The idea was to put two classes of 30 together and make 60. (class sizes for other subjects were 30 to a class) You do this with 4 classes of 30, and you only need two teachers. She said the school had been budgeted to pay the teachers 40,000 a month. I guess they had a budget of 160,000 a month for four teachers. Someone was so greedy they kept 80,000 for themselves.

This is a well-known all girls school in Bkk. The kinda school where the parents would brag about where they send their daughters. At the same time, it was still a government school.

[mark45y]

As mentioned earlier, television plays a huge role in the early development of a child's mind. I can recall programs I watched in the mid 1960's, programs which excited me about space travel (Star Trek, Lost In Space), Batman, Superman showed me how good always triumphs over evil (without graphic violence). There were many more.

Try as hard as I can, I cannot recall ever seeing the domestic violence, class domination and abject misery used as main themes for programs which are aired every hour of the day in Thailand. The humour is either slapstick or demeaning to the victim. None of this is having a good or beneficial effect on kids. I often see Thai kids, no older than 5 or 6 playing and I notice how violent they are. I see the same thing on the most popular soaps.

Kids emulate adults so it is a never ending cycle; the only way to break it is to introduce English language programs. Unfortunately most of the modern US or UK offerings seem to be heading in the opposite direction - nudity, violence and foul language are the latest vogue from what I see.

So I question why Thailand should actually bother with English; it makes more sense for them to embrace everything Chinese. Perhaps they have a fear of being swallowed up entirely (many believe it is inevitable, anyway) and recognise English as an investment in the future of their nation. However, English is not a big priority in China - instead western nations are rushing to educate their kids in Mandarin. They see the future where Thailand is waking up too late to English...

You have never watched a group of Thai kids trying to learn Chinese. Chinese is about 4 times as difficult in alphabet and vocabulary to learn.

[jpp2bkk]

And it is not with the nationalist racist Purachai it's gonna happen if he's in power after elections.

[Jingthing]

Another thing to consider. Those Spanish speaking countries such as Peru with poor English proficiency are not isolating themselves as much as Thailand. About 500 million people globally speak Spanish and all Spanish speakers can tap into the first world Spanish culture of Spain and increasingly the United States where Spanish is de facto becoming an unofficial second language.

[StasD]

I consider that Chinese language will be most important for thai people soon. Sutep is genius man. He knows much more than we.

[LaoPo]

So I question why Thailand should actually bother with English; it makes more sense for them to embrace everything Chinese. Perhaps they have a fear of being swallowed up entirely (many believe it is inevitable, anyway) and recognise English as an investment in the future of their nation. However, English is not a big priority in China - instead western nations are rushing to educate their kids in Mandarin. They see the future where Thailand is waking up too late to English...

That's a misconception; Learning/studying English IS a very big priority in China although the results are not promising and/or overwhelmingly good.

That many western countries are "rushing" to educate their kids in Mandarin is also a dream and not a fact. Only in a very limited number of countries and educational systems, Mandarin is on the school/university list but certainly not as an obligation.

If one wants to study (his kid) Mandarin you can't start young enough (age 3-4) since it is a very complicated language, both for speaking and writing, pronunciation.

The OP article by Veena Thoopkrajae is based upon a study by the EF Research Unit at Cambridge University of compared test scores of more than 2.3 million adults in 44 countries and regions where English is not the native language, from 2007 through 2009.

That Thailand is on place # 42 is indeed shocking and deplorable but not really a surprise either since the educational system, specially for foreign language studies with English on #1, is not exactly encouraged by the present and ALL past governments...is/was it?

Some excerpts from an article about this study by the EF Research Unit at the Cambridge University:

* China is ranked 29th in the English Proficiency Index, out of 44

* China performed worse than expected, considering the large investment many people make in private English training.

* Despite once being a British colony, India fared even worse, ranked 30 in the list.

* South Korea ranked 13th and Japan 14th - in the "moderate" proficiency category.

* Asian countries and regions scored low on average, with Malaysia best placed at 9th.

* Latin America performed the worst in English proficiency with an average score barely surpassing the low proficiency cut-off.

Bill Fisher, president of EF's online English division, said developing countries will need to improve their English skills to stay competitive.

"For developing countries to compete successfully in global industries and capitalise on the business outsourcing boom, the ability to produce large numbers of skilled graduates who are able to communicate in English must be a top priority," he told Reuters.

From: http://www.peoplefor...1&goto=lastpost

It would be nice to find the report in total.

LaoPo

Edited April 2, 2011 by LaoPo