Thailand Is Losing Out In Terms Of Education: Seminar

[webfact]

Accountability is lacking in education: seminar

CHULARAT SAENGPASSA,

WANNAPA KHAOPA

THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- Thailand is losing out in terms of education not because of the lack of resources but a lack of accountability, a Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) seminar was told yesterday.

The "Revamping Thai Education System: Quality for All" seminar was held at Centara Grand Hotel in Bangkok's CentralWorld.

Ammar Siamwalla, a distinguished scholar at TDRI, said Thailand certainly did not have a shortage of funds or time for students to study. He said Thai children did badly in school even though they work harder and spend longer hours studying compared to students in other countries.

For instance, Thai students spend up to six-and-a-half hours studying science, yet they are unable to win satisfactory scores in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa). In 2009, Thailand's average score in Pisa was just over 400, while Japan averaged at more than 500 points even though Japanese children spend less than four hours a week on the subject, Ammar said.

A source from the Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) said the commission was planning to increase the number of primary school hours to more than 1,000 per year.

According to Ammar, Thailand spends huge amounts of money on education as per World Bank statistics. The budget allocated to the Education Ministry in 2011 was Bt400 billion, double the Bt200 billion it was given in 2003. Also, teachers enjoy higher pay, earning Bt15,000 per month in 2001, which was increased to Bt24,000 in 2010 on average.

However, Dhurakij Pundit University President Varakorn Samakoses lamented the fact that politics has drifted into the education system, leading to many problems. He said politicians have been trying to win votes from teachers by introducing policies like helping them overcome their debt problems.

"State policies have started dominating the education system. These policies have led to an increase in special classes for students whose families donate money to popular state schools, which supports double standards among students with different economic status. This affects private schools because few students turn to them, which in turn, can cause corruption," Varakorn said.

"Also politicians who have become education ministers have never focused on developing education. Each minister has a different policy. There have been 13 education ministers over the past 11 years, and education development plans have not been implemented continuously," he added.

Kosit Panpiemras, chairman of TDRI Council of Trustees and board of directors, agreed, saying: "Complaints from employers about graduates not having enough skills, poor performance in international contests, degree-selling scandals and lack of quality teachers reflect the poor education standards. These issues indicate that the education system is in a crisis,"

Instead, he said, the ministry should decentralise the budget and give the job of curriculum management to schools, so they can educate students in response to the changes in society and labour market. This way, schools can be held accountable and be assessed fairly and transparently along with the students.

In order to improve students' assessment, TDRI vice-president Somkiat Tangkitvanich said Ordinary National Educational Test (O-Net) should be literacy based. Since there is a difference in the quality of every school in Thailand, he suggested that the grade-point average should no longer be used as an element in central university admission.

He also suggested that schools should provide an evaluation report to parents, so they can see how their children's school is faring in comparison to other schools in the area. This concept has already been successful in Brazil's Parana state.

"By making information on each school's performance public, parents will be encouraged to pay more attention, monitor the schools and force them to improve," he added.

-- The Nation 2012-02-16

[janverbeem]

"By making information on each school's performance public, parents will be encouraged to pay more attention, monitor the schools and force them to improve," he added.

I'm sure they misplaced a few punctuations which makes the result look completely different from what they actually had in mind.

"By making information on each school's performance public, parents will be encouraged to pay more ,attention, monitor the schools and force them to improve," he added.

Edited February 16, 2012 by janverbeem

[Reasonableman]

You may well be right, but I agree with the point that parents tend to relinquish responsibility for teachers' /schools' effectiveness at the school gate, and pay extra for "rien pisate" (special extra classes, a kind of "overtime") or send their kids to tutoring schools on weekends. More difficult since the floods, as kids are already attending school on Saturdays ( i.e. 6 days per week) to catch up. Also, an ingrained respect for the teaching profession (e.g., addressing them as khun kru or ajarn) makes parents reluctant (greng-jai) to criticize, albeit with the intention to improve performance.

"By making information on each school's performance public, parents will be encouraged to pay more attention, monitor the schools and force them to improve," he added.

I'm sure they misplaced a few punctuations which makes the result look completely different from what they actually had in mind.

"By making information on each school's performance public, parents will be encouraged to pay more ,attention, monitor the schools and force them to improve," he added.

Edited February 16, 2012 by Reasonableman

[Unkomoncents]

If you abstract the performance of Thai children compared with the children from other countries from the context of education, it becomes a source of (sense of) cultural superiority. Thais believe that their easygoing (by their definition, not mine), stress-free lives are a point of international pride. They are occasionally even willing to express the idea that the West is morally degraded and has lost sight of what is really important in life. All this is well and good, but then there should be little surprise that Thais spend more time and have less impressive results (in any area, let alone education). They intentionally avoid taking anything seriously, and they openly demonstrate the belief that children should learn at whatever pace they require. They also avoid international travel and any form of serious consideration of alternative policies (in ANY area, from microcosm to government). Then everyone sits around expressing shock when Thais do not measure up to international standards. I would argue that articles like this might propose telling teachers that their are other ways of doing things and the world is watching. That would be a first step towards improving Thai education. Talking about massive policy changes (that propose FURTHER decentralization) for a system that is incredibly decentralized and lacks any curriculum standards seems disingenuous.

[happysanook]

If you abstract the performance of Thai children compared with the children from other countries from the context of education, it becomes a source of (sense of) cultural superiority. Thais believe that their easygoing (by their definition, not mine), stress-free lives are a point of international pride. They are occasionally even willing to express the idea that the West is morally degraded and has lost sight of what is really important in life. All this is well and good, but then there should be little surprise that Thais spend more time and have less impressive results (in any area, let alone education). They intentionally avoid taking anything seriously, and they openly demonstrate the belief that children should learn at whatever pace they require. They also avoid international travel and any form of serious consideration of alternative policies (in ANY area, from microcosm to government). Then everyone sits around expressing shock when Thais do not measure up to international standards. I would argue that articles like this might propose telling teachers that their are other ways of doing things and the world is watching. That would be a first step towards improving Thai education. Talking about massive policy changes (that propose FURTHER decentralization) for a system that is incredibly decentralized and lacks any curriculum standards seems disingenuous.

All this is correct, and as already alluded to, the problem begins in the home from the day the kids are born... It's ingrained in Thai culture... They learn mai pen rai from the day they pop out...To change the way children learn, the entire Thai culture needs to be turned 180.

IMO, it's not a problem with the school system, but the entire way of life. Keep in mind, I mean "problem" in the context of the thread here, not that I think Thai way of living is a bad thing...It's just not conducive to disciplined learning or deep, broad thinking.

[AZBill]

And now the scores will again plummet as the kids, who are by nature lazy minded and not prone to critical thinking of any sort, spend all their time playing Angy Birds and shopping Hello Kitty sites on the newly government-issued Ipads. The idiocy of this government knows no bounds.

[zoroastra999]

Virtually all of us have lost our common sense through the brainwashing we call 'education'. Common sense tells us two undeniable facts:

1. It is impossible to teach anybody anything they don't want to learn.

2. It is practically impossible to stop someone from learning if they have a genuine passion for a subject.

Most people will only want to learn what is genuinely relevant to life (outside school). Nowadays, unfortunately this doesn't amount to much - so mass stupidity is inevitable.

English is one of the few subjects with an immediate real-world application. Everybody is taught it for many years yet the outcome is pathetic compared to the time, money and energy we pour into the enterprise. It's the same for all subjects, it's just less visible. How bad does it have to be before we acknowledge it simply isn't working?

[BigJohnnyBKK]

Generalizing here of course, not true in all cases, but I think true in most.

The confusion can even be seen in the language - there is no distinction between the difference in meaning between "spending time in class" and actually learning. Thais do the former to the max, but actually engage in the absolute minimum of the latter, basically only when threatened with physical punishment or public embarrassment.

Then there's the fact that their teachers often have little real (practical functioning) knowledge of their subject, their job is to just to deliver the text as written for rote memorization, very little teaching/learning **how to actually do anything** goes on.

The more general social problem is that most Thais are not willing to suffer now in the short term in order to gain (maybe) in the long term. Especially the torture the feel by being "bored". Another point of language interest, the word they use for bored is closer to "annoyed, irritated", not related to the feeling of "not having anything to do", a situation which most Thais would be overjoyed to be in.

I don't have a solution.

And the above pertains to ethnic Thais, whereas the Thai Chinese have an incredible work ethic and usually make great students, much more so than most Protestants I've met 8-)

[TackyToo]

It’s not the lack of skills causing the problems- it’s got to do with the skulls!

Regarding the "Complaints from employers about graduates not having enough skills, poor performance in international contests, degree-selling scandals and lack of quality teachers reflect the poor education standards.”

I have full faith in the “intelligencia” of this country!

Hence, I trust all these local educated politicians like a former Transport Minister quoted of saying to visiting counterpart: "Thai have different brain than other people. We are perfectly capable of talking and sending text messages while driving cars and motorbikes."

Same guy, later on: "It's really not necessary for Thai to wear helmets when driving motorbikes, as Thai have thicker skulls to protect them, unlike other people"

Maybe this is the answer to the above problem: The thicker the skull the less space for brain (skills)!

[Thaifever]

And now the scores will again plummet as the kids, who are by nature lazy minded and not prone to critical thinking of any sort, spend all their time playing Angy Birds and shopping Hello Kitty sites on the newly government-issued Ipads. The idiocy of this government knows no bounds.

Thank you. The supposed "best" of the countries' managers are wasting money on cheap "computers", without spending a baht on how these so called "computers" are to be implemented in training. What a stupid idea to begin with. A group of five year olds could have come up with a better plan to improve the un-education of this "Amazing" land.

[Thaifever]

"By making information on each school's performance public, parents will be encouraged to pay more attention, monitor the schools and force them to improve," he added.

^^^ So it's up to the parents to make the improvements. Wow, that statement speaks for itself. In other words, we don't know how to fix the problem, so let the parents complain about it and maybe someone will think of something?! The government is like any government. Get in, and take as much as possible while your in. This is your only chance to get ahead.

Thai students spend up to six-and-a-half hours studying science, yet they are unable to win satisfactory scores in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa). In 2009, Thailand's average score in Pisa was just over 400, while Japan averaged at more than 500 points even though Japanese children spend less than four hours a week on the subject, Ammar said.

A source from the Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) said the commission was planning to increase the number of primary school hours to more than 1,000 per year.

This is the most ridiculous part of the education system. "Billy Bob! Get that fire goin! "I can't light the fire Hick Dave! The newspaper is wet!" "Well put some more wet newspaper under the kindling and get it started!"

Common sense says, If it's broke, fix it. Don't continue riding on a flat tire. Seriously, more hours?! I have worked in the school system and it's extremely frustrating. The whole hierarchical order of things here is archaic and totally impractical. Most of the Thai teachers don't know how to teach because they learned from teachers who also didn't know. It's like a mini government system where the ones at the top do nothing but bark orders and blame everyone else down the chain of command.

Teachers need to learn how to teach, from experienced teachers who know how to get results. I can't see that happening from within Thailand. In my mind, the education system needs outside help. But pride will never allow that to happen. Professionalism is out the window. Effective class time is out the window, and 20 floors to the ground. More school hours? Genius!