The Quality Of Teaching Is What Really Matters

[Lite Beer]

EDITORIAL

The quality of teaching is what really matters

The Nation February 19, 2012 1:00 am

Focussing on facilities and financial support for schools ignores key factor

The ongoing debate over "donations" to schools - otherwise known as "tea money" - has missed the fundamental issue that this custom causes disparity in the quality of schooling.

Parents will certainly strive to send their children to schools that they consider the best via whatever means. And money is an effective way to enable parents to get what they want for their children.

Of course, the question of "tea money" often comes up before the opening of the school season. The issue has got increasingly intense because the differences in the quality of schooling have widened over the recent years.

Pictures of parents and students waiting desperately to get accepted at recognised schools do not suggest an inadequate supply of schools. In fact, there are schools that have seats available. But parents don't want to send their children there because they are not confident about the quality of teaching at these schools.

The issue, however, has been framed as a reflection of the disparity between the "haves" and "have-nots". Parents who can offer better financial resources to support schools often have a better chance to get their children accepted. Parents with average children and little financial resources are likely to face fierce competition with only a few slots available. Failing that, they would have to settle and enter their kids in the second- or third-best schools.

Famous schools have naturally become a target for parents and their resources. But the educators and activists should instead look at what has gone wrong at schools that no parents want their kids to go to.

Education Minister Suchart Tadathamrongvej recently tried to legalise this despicable, yet popular, custom, by calling payment from parents a "school donation", instead of "tea money."

Suchart's move, not surprisingly, drew quick condemnation from activists. Building Thailand Club president Amnuay Sunthornchote said Suchart's policy would encourage

discrimination against people on the basis of financial status.

Let's face it: Thailand has now become a materialistic society. Money often gets people what they need or want. Regardless of what form of contribution is made, the tradition of tea money will continue.

Suchart was not quite right in his argument that parents' donations would make up for inadequate quality of schooling.

But the physical improvement of schools does not provide an answer to good education. The Education Ministry or even the schools' management tend to measure schools' success by their new buildings or a new set of computers. State subsidies often go to new buildings or computer facilities. The quality of teachers is hardly improved and the average class size in Thai schools is still too big to enable teachers to get pay sufficient for the students in their classes.

The Education Ministry has in fact received a massive budget. But this money never gets used on improving the quality of teaching or classrooms for the students. Adults tend to use the children's money on something that children may not care for, such as fancy buildings.

While the education-related arguments in Thailand centre around the question of money, other countries have looked at the fundamental issue to see how to improve teaching or the learning environment for students.

American education officials have felt it's imperative to improve the quality of teaching after seeing "their" children perform worse than countries such as Singapore and South Korea. In a move to address the issue, officials in New York State and the state teachers' union recently reached an agreement on a new evaluation system to measure the quality of teachers' work.

The disparity in the school system has been framed by some as an issue of injustice. Children of well-off parents have more advantages to get access to the best schools.

But instead of blaming their parents, educators should focus on how we can narrow the gap and provide quality teaching to students at all schools. After all, the best school is defined by their students and teachers - not the financial support that it has.

-- The Nation 2012-02-19

[tolstoy]

"Thailand has now become a materialistic society. Money often gets people what they need or want. Regardless of what form of contribution is made, the tradition of tea money will continue."

Since when is that something new in Thai society? Thailand has always been a materialistic society and the difference between the haves and have nots has always been the issue.

As to the rest of the article, spot on.

If the MOE made a mandate that all schools can have a maximum of 25-30 students, that would improve a lot more than Ipads for the kids or a new swimming pool.

The sad thing is that there are many private schools that charge a fortune and have a "good repuation" however in fact they offer very little more than the government schools other than nice facilities. They still have to follow the MOE curriculum.

Having a curriculum that wasn't designed by university professors that have no experience with childrens' learning processes is more to blame than teachers. Teachers hands are tied.

Morning assemblies of 30 minutes a day, 12-14 different subjects for students to study a week, 50 students in a classroom, testing systems that don't reflect the teaching approach, is equally to blame as teachers who have don't know the subjects that they teach.

What happens though when MOE tries to evaluate or improve teaching quality, they just require more paperwork and justification. They make a check list of items that need to be used. They call it quality assurance but it is just quantity assurance. There is no safegaurd that says if you have a computer in the classroom that it is actually used in a manner that fosters learning. Watching a video doesn't teach students anything. They usually focus on the elements that aren't critical and without a proper lesson designed around the video it is just whitewashing the problem.

[KKvampire]

The culture / behaviour of Thailand outside the schools is what it is , how can it be made to be any different inside the schools? "p***sing in the wind

[Reasonableman]

Never say die! ;-)

Looks like TVF is making an impact, after all! Many of the points raised in this piece were also canvassed in our discussions. Well done!

The culture / behaviour of Thailand outside the schools is what it is , how can it be made to be any different inside the schools? "p***sing in the wind

Edited February 19, 2012 by Reasonableman

[kerryk]

All the important current and past leaders in Thailand were educated outside of the country going back more than a century. What did they learn? Apparently not enough to want a quality education system for Thailand. I would blame the problem on Oxford, Harvard and Kentucky State.

[Lifer]

Above posters are spot on. With experience in several levels of Thai education to the MBA level, I can attest to the massive educational problems. Firstly, it's always been about money and materialism, at least back to 1972 when I first came to Thailand.

I have had 3rd and 4th year students in English taught business management programs that continually disrupt the class with their talking, lack of any reading of textbooks, no preparation for their classes, and able to do nothing but use their cellphones with wi-fi. They constantly cause disruptions for those who want to learn in the class.

Many do not want to be in their programs their taking, but parents force them to go. They are not interested in any of the business subjects their taking and never ever read any business news in journals, papers, books, etc.

Given a simple amount of homework to bring home the business theory, many never bother to do it, but come to class and just copy the answers when you go over the homework for the other students. You have a difficult time assigning any work at home for points because a few students do the work and rest copy from their classmates. Cheating is common in the classrooms if they can get away with it.

Many students who do not possess the English language to be entered in an English taught, so called International Business Program, are allowed to enter many programs without any testing for qualifications in English. Today its about money made off the students without any genuine caring for the students success.

In one vocaational Business school, the students were passed thru by making the teachers give them some irrelevant little project before passing them on to the next level. I have walked by some classrooms at these schools where the Thai teachers with 50 students are teaching to a handfull while the rest are talking and doing other things that has nothing to do with the class. For the girls and its, there more cosmetic and fashion books be read than school books.

Can not answer for the Thai teachers, but I do know that most of the foreign teachers are trying to do their utmost to give the students a good program. They are made to do the lesson plans by the administrations and program heads, which are used for show, while at the same time putting pressure on teachers to pass the students thru.

Knowledge can be taught by the teachers ( think they are hardworking and skilled), but if the students do not apply themselves at all levels to learn or put in any effort, knowledge will not be absorbed. It's time to quit blaming all the teachers and put more of the responsibility on the students and parents.

Future leaders come from the abilities and knowledge learned by the young students, and then the young adults having some desire to take over and lead the Thai people when the time comes.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Lifer

[Nisa]

How does The Nation expect to have an "EDITORIAL" be taken credibly without even providing the name author of the editorial?

[whybother]

How does The Nation expect to have an "EDITORIAL" be taken credibly without even providing the name author of the editorial?

The authors would the the Nation's editors. You can look them up on their website, I think.

[Reasonableman]

Editorials are written by editors, and are not normally named. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be. Its a convention. Newspapers tend to list all their editors elsewhere.

How does The Nation expect to have an "EDITORIAL" be taken credibly without even providing the name author of the editorial?

[Nisa]

How does The Nation expect to have an "EDITORIAL" be taken credibly without even providing the name author of the editorial?

The authors would the the Nation's editors. You can look them up on their website, I think.

I can almost assure you this was not written by a Thai person.

[Reasonableman]

Why do you think that?

How does The Nation expect to have an "EDITORIAL" be taken credibly without even providing the name author of the editorial?

The authors would the the Nation's editors. You can look them up on their website, I think.

I can almost assure you this was not written by a Thai person.

[Nisa]

Editorials are written by editors, and are not normally named. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be. Its a convention. Newspapers tend to list all their editors elsewhere.

How does The Nation expect to have an "EDITORIAL" be taken credibly without even providing the name author of the editorial?

You might want to not only look up the definition of the word "editorial" (because it doesn't mean it was written by the editors) as well as taking a look at the way every other person posts on this forum instead of placing your responses at the top of the quotes making it difficult for people to follow when quoting.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Nisa

[Reasonableman]

Sorry about that. It seems to be the default for the iPad. In addition, there is a minuscule box for text entry in reply, so please be a little forgiving. It is not designed to irritate. It's off-topic, but it would be great if the iPad interface could be improved in these respects. If anyone knows a better way, please advise. Thanks.

Editorials are written by editors, and are not normally named. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be. Its a convention. Newspapers tend to list all their editors elsewhere.

How does The Nation expect to have an "EDITORIAL" be taken credibly without even providing the name author of the editorial?

You might want to not only look up the definition of the word "editorial" (because it doesn't mean it was written by the editors) as well as taking a look at the way every other person posts on this forum instead of placing your responses at the top of the quotes making it difficult for people to follow when quoting.

[Reasonableman]

You seem a little peevish today Nisa. Are you OK? Dictionaries, like statistics, can be helpful. Dictionaries do not define current usage everywhere, and inevitably suffer from time lag. So I guess editorial may have slightly different meanings at different times and in different places. Anyway, would you like to answer the question, instead of quibbling and fault-finding?

Editorials are written by editors, and are not normally named. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be. Its a convention. Newspapers tend to list all their editors elsewhere.

How does The Nation expect to have an "EDITORIAL" be taken credibly without even providing the name author of the editorial?

You might want to not only look up the definition of the word "editorial" (because it doesn't mean it was written by the editors) as well as taking a look at the way every other person posts on this forum instead of placing your responses at the top of the quotes making it difficult for people to follow when quoting.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Reasonableman

[Nisa]

Sorry about that. It seems to be the default for the iPad. In addition, there is a minuscule box for text entry in reply, so please be a little forgiving. It is not designed to irritate. It's off-topic, but it would be great if the iPad interface could be improved in these respects. If anyone knows a better way, please advise. Thanks.

My apologizes. It didn't occur to me it was something more than you trying to make your posts stand out. Seriously, sorry for the incorrect assumption.

[Nisa]

How does The Nation expect to have an "EDITORIAL" be taken credibly without even providing the name author of the editorial?

The authors would the the Nation's editors. You can look them up on their website, I think.

I can almost assure you this was not written by a Thai person.

Why do you think that?

Obviously I could be wrong but based on the thoughts, expressions, opinion and grammar imo it is not written by an editor of The Nation who seem to be unable to even catch blatantly obvious grammatical errors in their news reports. And trust me, I am the last person you want to turn to for grammar issues but some are just impossible to miss.

[Nisa]

You seem a little peevish today Nisa. Are you OK? Dictionaries, like statistics, can be helpful. Dictionaries do not define current usage everywhere, and inevitably suffer from time lag. So I guess editorial may have slightly different meanings at different times and in different places. Anyway, would you like to answer the question, instead of quibbling and fault-finding?

Possibly re: peevish but it just irritates me (sometimes more than others) Opinions in the news expressed as facts and absolutely no idea who is even expressing these opinions to know if and what their agenda is. And I have no idea if I even agree with the OP because after reading the first couple paragraphs I stopped to look at whose thoughts I was reading but couldn't find the answer here or on The Nation's site. So, I may agree with the OP 100% or not but to me I don't want to read opinions from a major news source when the person expressing the opinions isn't proud to identify themselves or worse yet, has a reason to hide their identity.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Nisa

[whybother]

Sorry about that. It seems to be the default for the iPad. In addition, there is a minuscule box for text entry in reply, so please be a little forgiving. It is not designed to irritate. It's off-topic, but it would be great if the iPad interface could be improved in these respects. If anyone knows a better way, please advise. Thanks.

Can't you go to the bottom of the quoted text? The Android app puts the cursor below the quoted text, which makes it easier, but I can move around quite easily.

[whybother]

You seem a little peevish today Nisa. Are you OK? Dictionaries, like statistics, can be helpful. Dictionaries do not define current usage everywhere, and inevitably suffer from time lag. So I guess editorial may have slightly different meanings at different times and in different places. Anyway, would you like to answer the question, instead of quibbling and fault-finding?

Possibly re: peevish but it just irritates me (sometimes more than others) Opinions in the news expressed as facts and absolutely no idea who is even expressing these opinions to know if and what their agenda is. And I have no idea if this story is correct or not because after reading the first couple paragraphs I stopped to look at whose thoughts I was reading but couldn't find the answer here or on The Nation's site. So, I may agree with the OP 100% or not but to me I don't want to read opinions from a major news source when the person expressing the opinions isn't proud to identify themselves or worse yet, has a reason to hide their identity.

If it's an editorial, doesn't that make it opinion ... maybe based around some facts.

[Reasonableman]

This bleedin' microscopic text box, and the minute text size, are giving me & my ageing eyes a case of the severe irrits. I'll need to take a packed lunch for the journey to the end of the text. Then, to add insult to injury, i have to go back and edit out all the typos. Jeez.

Sorry about that. It seems to be the default for the iPad. In addition, there is a minuscule box for text entry in reply, so please be a little forgiving. It is not designed to irritate. It's off-topic, but it would be great if the iPad interface could be improved in these respects. If anyone knows a better way, please advise. Thanks.

Can't you go to the bottom of the quoted text? The Android app puts the cursor below the quoted text, which makes it easier, but I can move around quite easily.

[Nisa]

You seem a little peevish today Nisa. Are you OK? Dictionaries, like statistics, can be helpful. Dictionaries do not define current usage everywhere, and inevitably suffer from time lag. So I guess editorial may have slightly different meanings at different times and in different places. Anyway, would you like to answer the question, instead of quibbling and fault-finding?

Possibly re: peevish but it just irritates me (sometimes more than others) Opinions in the news expressed as facts and absolutely no idea who is even expressing these opinions to know if and what their agenda is. And I have no idea if this story is correct or not because after reading the first couple paragraphs I stopped to look at whose thoughts I was reading but couldn't find the answer here or on The Nation's site. So, I may agree with the OP 100% or not but to me I don't want to read opinions from a major news source when the person expressing the opinions isn't proud to identify themselves or worse yet, has a reason to hide their identity.

If it's an editorial, doesn't that make it opinion ... maybe based around some facts.

As I stated, it isn't about it being an opinion piece. But it really isn't that big of a deal, was just ranting a bit because of my mood this morning. Didn't mean to pull this off topic.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Nisa

[Reasonableman]

Yes, normally the case. Opinion.

You seem a little peevish today Nisa. Are you OK? Dictionaries, like statistics, can be helpful. Dictionaries do not define current usage everywhere, and inevitably suffer from time lag. So I guess editorial may have slightly different meanings at different times and in different places. Anyway, would you like to answer the question, instead of quibbling and fault-finding?

Possibly re: peevish but it just irritates me (sometimes more than others) Opinions in the news expressed as facts and absolutely no idea who is even expressing these opinions to know if and what their agenda is. And I have no idea if this story is correct or not because after reading the first couple paragraphs I stopped to look at whose thoughts I was reading but couldn't find the answer here or on The Nation's site. So, I may agree with the OP 100% or not but to me I don't want to read opinions from a major news source when the person expressing the opinions isn't proud to identify themselves or worse yet, has a reason to hide their identity.

If it's an editorial, doesn't that make it opinion ... maybe based around some facts.

[Reasonableman]

Agreed.

You seem a little peevish today Nisa. Are you OK? Dictionaries, like statistics, can be helpful. Dictionaries do not define current usage everywhere, and inevitably suffer from time lag. So I guess editorial may have slightly different meanings at different times and in different places. Anyway, would you like to answer the question, instead of quibbling and fault-finding?

Possibly re: peevish but it just irritates me (sometimes more than others) Opinions in the news expressed as facts and absolutely no idea who is even expressing these opinions to know if and what their agenda is. And I have no idea if I even agree with the OP because after reading the first couple paragraphs I stopped to look at whose thoughts I was reading but couldn't find the answer here or on The Nation's site. So, I may agree with the OP 100% or not but to me I don't want to read opinions from a major news source when the person expressing the opinions isn't proud to identify themselves or worse yet, has a reason to hide their identity.

[whybother]

As I stated, it isn't about it being an opinion piece. But it really isn't that big of a deal, was just ranting a bit because of my mood this morning. Didn't mean to pull this off topic.

Wiki

An editorial, leading article (UK), or leader (UK) is an opinion piece written by the senior editorial staff or publisher of a newspaper or magazine. Editorials are usually unsigned and may be supposed to reflect the opinion of the periodical. In Australian and major United States newspapers, such as the New York Times[1] and the Boston Globe,[2] editorials are often classified under the heading "opinion".

[metisdead]

You seem a little peevish today Nisa. Are you OK? Dictionaries, like statistics, can be helpful. Dictionaries do not define current usage everywhere, and inevitably suffer from time lag. So I guess editorial may have slightly different meanings at different times and in different places. Anyway, would you like to answer the question, instead of quibbling and fault-finding?

Possibly re: peevish but it just irritates me (sometimes more than others) Opinions in the news expressed as facts and absolutely no idea who is even expressing these opinions to know if and what their agenda is. And I have no idea if this story is correct or not because after reading the first couple paragraphs I stopped to look at whose thoughts I was reading but couldn't find the answer here or on The Nation's site. So, I may agree with the OP 100% or not but to me I don't want to read opinions from a major news source when the person expressing the opinions isn't proud to identify themselves or worse yet, has a reason to hide their identity.

If it's an editorial, doesn't that make it opinion ... maybe based around some facts.

As I stated, it isn't about it being an opinion piece. But it really isn't that big of a deal, was just ranting a bit because of my mood this morning. Didn't mean to pull this off topic.

And off topic it is indeed, why not contact The Nation and discuss this issue with them?

[Fookhaht]

All the important current and past leaders in Thailand were educated outside of the country going back more than a century. What did they learn? Apparently not enough to want a quality education system for Thailand. I would blame the problem on Oxford, Harvard and Kentucky State.

Missed it by a mile.

I would blame the elitist attitudes of the minority which prefer to keep the bulk of the educationally-disadvantaged population in ignorance. Easier to rule, control and mislead.

[Nisa]

Okay, I finally read this. I really don't understand the point unless the unknown author is saying their shouldn't be private learning institutions. Is there anywhere in the world where parents with money aren't able to provide better education to their kids? He speaks about America but America's public education system (like so many places) are a mess and the big push now is to give parents money to be able to pay for private schools. As for tea money, even the most prestigious schools in America ask parents for donations if they want little Johnny to attend if little Johnny isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. They are private institutions and I believe this is their right and it beats advertising that they have higher prices for stupid kids.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that equal and better education should be available to all but also believe nobody should be homeless and be able to take a cruise every couple months and drive a Mercedes. But we need to address things on a smaller and realistic scale before we get to a Utopian society. But one could also argue that people with money have worked hard for it and deserve to have the best ... the whole strongest survive thing.

[Oberkommando]

All the important current and past leaders in Thailand were educated outside of the country going back more than a century. What did they learn?

How to be better thieves.

[Colin Yai]

All the important current and past leaders in Thailand were educated outside of the country going back more than a century. What did they learn?

How to be better thieves.

Not forgetting learning to be being accomplished liars too!

[KKvampire]

Oh dear.attacking the messenger ,nation editorial, and not the message must be written by those who know nothing about Thai education. People with experience over a long period are the only ones with real understanding of what a cultural problem it is.

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