Thailand Ignores Education Reform At Its Own Peril

[webfact]

EDITORIAL

Thailand ignores education reform at its own peril

By The Nation

The call for meaningful change in our schools goes unheeded by politicians and bureaucrats who cannot think further than their own pockets

Voters have yet to see the political parties' educational platforms, even though the general election is only a few weeks away.

Although politicians often use children to solicit votes - using them in all available photo opportunities - they have so far failed to come up with any policies to ensure the younger generations will grow up enjoying a quality education and supportive learning environment.

Major political parties simply outline their education plans broadly. For instance, the Pheu Thai Party says blandly that education is at the heart of every solution to achieve future prosperity. The Democrat Party says it will create incentives to attract qualified persons to become teachers, as well as continue the free education programme. Neither gives any specifics. The small and medium-sized parties, meanwhile, have not said anything about education.

It is not surprising, as education has never been a priority for political parties, especially now, as they are only interested in announcing short-term policies to attract votes.

The ignorance and inefficiency of our decision-makers has resulted in the falling rank of the Thai educational system in a global survey. A number of weaknesses have been pointed out. For instance, the Thai labour force fails to accommodate the needs of the business sector. Thailand lacks industrial technicians to keep up with increasing demand. The level of English proficiency of Thai students is at the lower end of the survey.

The challenge for educational reform is how to provide equitable access and quality education to all children. Thailand has so far failed to achieve in both areas.

Hundreds of thousands of children are denied educational opportunity for various reasons such as poverty, lack of family support, homelessness or non-citizenship.

The lack of a supportive environment can also contribute to the dropout rate of Thai students. More than 2 million children drop out of middle school to go into unskilled jobs every year.

There are various options to assist these children. Schools and educational institutes could provide a support network to assist with after-school programmes or mentoring programmes. But the existing education system is too rigid. While the resources in public schools are limited, it is difficult for outside organisations to provide supplementary programmes to assist students. Without sufficient assistance to encourage underprivileged children to stay in school, they are prone to various risk factors such as crime and drugs.

Much has been said about Thai students' need to use English properly. But a more fundamental issue is whether the Thai education system teaches students to think, analyse and communicate effectively. Has the Thai curriculum made students understand themselves and their environment? Has our school system enabled students to develop based on their skills, instead of moulding them to certain norms?

Most students aspire to study in a field that will provide them with a high return in an industrial society. Curricula encourage them to follow a mould in which a desirable goal is to gain employment in a company. Rural graduates move to Bangkok every year because they are not instilled with ambition to use their talents in their own communities. Many of these graduates end up working in mediocre jobs.

The current schooling system ignores students' special skills or potential to develop, and does not encourage them to be innovative or think outside the box. Students are judged by their ability to remember the correct answers in multiple choice questions instead of their ability to write good essays or to express their thoughts.

Unfortunately, political parties have so far failed to recognise the imperative of meaningful educational reform. They only focus on flashy advertisements which fail to address the real challenges of educational reform. The Cabinet every year approves a massive budget for education. But most of it is stolen or squandered by politicians and bureaucrats at the expense of our children.

The future is not promising. In spite of the widely debated issue of education reform, politicians have nothing to offer except giveaway gadgets. This is not a solution for the future of our country.

Perhaps, instead of creating a new breed of teachers, our priority should be to re-educate our politicians.

-- The Nation 2011-06-14

[elshaheen]

Yes, we all know about this. Thailand runs educational facilities and schools much like their government. It's a failure. They will never listen to those who come from other countries to help assist Thailand's education system. NGO's have offered to help, Middle Eastern countries have offered to help and supply resources, etc.

Thailand's MOE is headed by a political appointee, a person who has no experience in Education what so ever.

The Thai teachers council is make up of some old ladies who really don't know what the hell they are talking about.

I had one of them come to my classroom the other day. I asked her, what she was doing. She said, She works for MOE and was observing the students. When she approached one and started to examine my students work. I approached her and asked her if she knew my student. She said, "no" and started to offer advice. I ended up telling her to leave my classroom and stop messing with my students. She went off how she works for the MOE. I don't care if she worked for god.

Kids in Thailand schools are offered programs designed to make them fail. Why, because Thailand schools are at the mercy of ESL publishing agencies convencing them to buy they're books, when in fact they are way above students level.

School directors only use their schools for a social / political platform. Drive around in their nice fancy cars, smoke their cigars, have their geeks.

That is why parents have sought out tutors for their children, because they see their children getting screwed by their schools. ESL schools pop up all over the place, and parents enroll their children in those programs to get something better.

[thaiorchidsource]

Thailand governments seem to not want their people to obtain quality education, and I think if the population were educated, they would know what a poor job their government does and want to make changes and those who are benefiting from the corruption would have a problem. A guy like Thaksin knows this and he can control his constituency with money to vote for his party and his return to power. As I have been told many times by Thais, it is the Thai way.

[wackysleet]

It's far easier to control the uneducated masses, after all one would not want the unwashed joining the rich in BKK would one, it's just not done.

[whybother]

It's far easier to control the uneducated masses, after all one would not want the unwashed joining the rich in BKK would one, it's just not done.

Yes, that's why Thaksin didn't improve education while he was the PM AND Education minister. He would rather the masses be uneducated.

[scorecard]

Yes, we all know about this. Thailand runs educational facilities and schools much like their government. It's a failure. They will never listen to those who come from other countries to help assist Thailand's education system. NGO's have offered to help, Middle Eastern countries have offered to help and supply resources, etc.

Thailand's MOE is headed by a political appointee, a person who has no experience in Education what so ever.

The Thai teachers council is make up of some old ladies who really don't know what the hell they are talking about.

I had one of them come to my classroom the other day. I asked her, what she was doing. She said, She works for MOE and was observing the students. When she approached one and started to examine my students work. I approached her and asked her if she knew my student. She said, "no" and started to offer advice. I ended up telling her to leave my classroom and stop messing with my students. She went off how she works for the MOE. I don't care if she worked for god.

Kids in Thailand schools are offered programs designed to make them fail. Why, because Thailand schools are at the mercy of ESL publishing agencies convencing them to buy they're books, when in fact they are way above students level.

School directors only use their schools for a social / political platform. Drive around in their nice fancy cars, smoke their cigars, have their geeks.

That is why parents have sought out tutors for their children, because they see their children getting screwed by their schools. ESL schools pop up all over the place, and parents enroll their children in those programs to get something better.

Part quote from above:

".....They will never listen to those who come from other countries to help assist Thailand's education system....."

Well I can share a twist of this point.

One of my masters degree students told me that her mother was trying to get accredited as an English language instructor to teach other Thai teachers to be proficient in English language teaching. Note: this accreditation means grammar and construction, not spoken English.

My student asked me to review about 30 'model' sentences her mother had developed as part of her submission to the education office which runs this accreditation program.

I corrected every sentence and gave it back to my student, many sentences were seriously wrong, my student gave it to her mother and mother quickly asked if she could resubmit her work.

Answer 'No, becaue your submission has already been reviewed and you got 30 corect answers'.

Mother then tells her daughter to scold me for giving her wrong answers.

[wackysleet]

It's far easier to control the uneducated masses, after all one would not want the unwashed joining the rich in BKK would one, it's just not done.

Yes, that's why Thaksin didn't improve education while he was the PM AND Education minister. He would rather the masses be uneducated.

Not being of any political persuasion and not being biased at all but it seems that the education system is no better under the democrats either if one is to believe the editorial.

Perhaps it's time ministers were made accountable for their lost/misappropiated enormous budgets but of course we all know that will never happen

[whybother]

It's far easier to control the uneducated masses, after all one would not want the unwashed joining the rich in BKK would one, it's just not done.

Yes, that's why Thaksin didn't improve education while he was the PM AND Education minister. He would rather the masses be uneducated.

Not being of any political persuasion and not being biased at all but it seems that the education system is no better under the democrats either if one is to believe the editorial.

Using "the unwashed joining the rich in BKK" points to your political persuasion.

Making it free for 15 years certainly encourages students to stay in school longer, but there certainly could be more done. Let's hope the next government, whoever they are, make some progress.

Perhaps it's time ministers were made accountable for their lost/misappropiated enormous budgets but of course we all know that will never happen

Couldn't agree more. Not likely to happen very soon though.

[Gonsalviz]

It's far easier to control the uneducated masses, after all one would not want the unwashed joining the rich in BKK would one, it's just not done.

I have told my TW that this is what is happening and she agrees. But for some reason no one seems to care.

[wackysleet]

Using "the unwashed joining the rich in BKK" points to your political persuasion.

Making it free for 15 years certainly encourages students to stay in school longer, but there certainly could be more done. Let's hope the next government, whoever they are, make some progress.

Perhaps it's time ministers were made accountable for their lost/misappropiated enormous budgets but of course we all know that will never happen

Couldn't agree more. Not likely to happen very soon though.

That remark was meant entirely tongue in cheek and my opinion on how the so called elite/hi/so see themselves and the less fortunate in society so your view on my political persuasion is completely wrong, I would never offer even tacit support for such a system/people that allow such corruption so please take your head out of the sand and try to recognise the truth that all parties have their share of crooks, some more than others.

Unlike some posters on here I really do not care who gets in and accept that there are undoubtably good and bad politicians from all political parties and that even the party that you seem to hate so much probably did some good things, I have not read much from the democrat supporters here on the PMs recent admission that corruption was increasing, surely a case of "There are none so blind as those that wish not to see.

[TackyToo]

What's all this fuss about? A Mahidol Professor urged the government to give incentives to Thai women to produce "quality babies"!

Just found this (in German) here: http://wahnsinnausdemwok.wordpress.com/page/2/

[Credo]

To give you an idea of what is important, the 'officials' will visit our school tomorrow. The instructions are that the covers of the notebooks must be done a certain way. That is what they will check. The names must be written in a certain color ink and it must be neat.

The younger students must have their notebooks written by the teacher.

Nothing will be checked on lesson plans, quality of teaching, etc. Just the notebooks must be 'beautiful' for all subjects.

[Honkytowner]

"Voters have yet to see the political parties' educational platforms, even though the general election is only a few weeks away."

In other news, Thai political parties now have policy platforms.

Yeah, right. It's all about money, man!