Thai Seminar Spells Out Education System's Inadequacies

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Seminar spells out education system's inadequacies
Wannapa Khaopa
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- The education system is failing in properly equipping juveniles to join the job market, as six out of 10 only complete at most a higher secondary or vocational education, a seminar heard.

"The workforce is mostly not well educated and not productive," said Krissanapong Kirtikara, second vice chairman of the Quality Learning Foundation.

Stakeholders at the foundation's seminar urged the Education Ministry to prepare youngsters with practical occupational skills.

Professor Pavich Tongroach, adviser to the education minister and chairman of a basic-curriculum and textbook reform panel, said he would take the seminar's recommendations on needed skills back to his panel's meeting to discuss changes to the curriculum so that the majority of students, who were not in higher education, would have enough work and life skills.

He has a meeting with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra tomorrow to talk about shaping the education strategy and says he will report to her the progress on the curriculum revamp. Also, the panel members will this week gather with the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology to work out suitable changes in science and mathematics courses, he said.

The panel will from April 20-21 review the recommendations from various agencies and hold a public hearing to brainstorm suitable proposals.

Thailand is now a greying society, Krissanapong said. Only a fifth of the population is younger than 15. The elderly will increase in number and proportion and become an economic and social burden on society.

"Thailand is ageing before getting rich because of an uneducated and less productive workforce," he said.

"The education system needs to be reformed to ensure work competency and good work habits, which are workability and employability and value orientation. This should lead to employment," he said.

In a recent survey of 317 teachers from various kinds of schools, 42-64 per cent said study hours were too long, more than 50 per cent said the hours for compulsory subjects should be decreased by four or five hours per week to give more time to electives, and 89-99 per cent proposed that lectures be decreased by four hours per week to allow time for learning by doing.

The seminar proposed putting practical occupational skills and life skills needed for today's world in the curriculum that is being now revised.

The participants also called for a change to the class schedule so that students would take core and required subjects in the morning and learn skills for occupations and living in the afternoon. The occupations should match the demand of the surrounding communities.

Two student representatives at the seminar, Thanayut Singhaseni, 20, from Stamford International University and Weerayut Kongnhu, 19, from Rajaprajanugroh School 42, came up with ideas, such as the improvement of cognitive skills, a greater emphasis on public consciousness, civic duty and various skills to be applied in real life, and learning English from native speakers.


-- The Nation 2013-04-03

[arthurboy]

Yet another report to come out in the last month or so highlighting the complete inadequacies and total failure of the Thai education system.

Is anyone listening in the extremeley well funded MoE?

Or are they all too busy planning their next completely unwarranted fact finding visit abroad to find out what they already know?

[siampolee]

Mutual backslapping continues whilst the level of education in Thailand sinks even further into the quagmire of ignorance.

[thaicbr]

Here is a nice pie chart of the 2013 budget.. Not including the 2t loan.

source: http://siu.co.th/2012/09/thailands-budget-2013-where-will-the-money-go/

[RisqEM]

Here is a nice pie chart of the 2013 budget.. Not including the 2t loan.

basegraph-eng-621x448.png

source: http://siu.co.th/2012/09/thailands-budget-2013-where-will-the-money-go/

That's a great graph, and I think it proves that no matter how much money you throw at a problem, money isn't enough to fix things....something that will never be understood here.

[atyclb]

Not graduating despite a "no fail" policy requires special skills.

Another issue they did not mention is the "being connected" factor in gaining employment.

[drdoom6996]

They don't need a Seminar! They need teachers that can speak English and don't take money for grades.

[Sydebolle]

Interesting enough many locals envy foreigners for their skills. Latter is related to education and training; in Central Europe 75% of the secondary school graduates enter an apprenticeship programme which .........:

a) does not exist in Thailand and is considered

low(er) class as it involves physical practice of what is learnt simultaneously at school or at the place of work.

We've tried to implement such a programme here in Thailand some years ago for the German-speaking students coming from the Swiss Educational Association Bangkok or the CDSC Chiang Mai. The programme never took off as the Department of Labour considered "working" during an apprenticeship programme the same as "working" as an expatriate. As the students had no proven track of professional background the whole programme ...... was moved to Singapore, where it works beautifully.

I sent my kids (educated here over 12 years at international schools here) back to my native Switzerland for the final formation in apprenticeship programmes; both have top jobs here in Thailand with expatriate perks.

How sad to see so much local talent going down the toilet due to the ignorance of local authorites; latter being entrusted to keep the unskilled .. unskilled and the stupid .. stupid. The price Thailand will have to pay over the next two, three generations will by far outreach the money the powers-to-be stole from their uneducated and untrained electorate!

[Johnnie99]

Must have been one hell of a long seminar.

[a99az]

Don't need a Seminar to know this, or one to fix the problem. If you can't see how lacking it is you must have just arrived from another planet.

[drl02]

I hope the new emphasis on math skills will extend to the people who write the articles. With a sample size of 317, it should be easy to give an exact percentage number. Instead we are given ranges of 42-64 and 89-99.

[atyclb]

Interesting enough many locals envy foreigners for their skills. Latter is related to education and training; in Central Europe 75% of the secondary school graduates enter an apprenticeship programme which .........:

a) does not exist in Thailand and is considered

low(er) class as it involves physical practice of what is learnt simultaneously at school or at the place of work.

We've tried to implement such a programme here in Thailand some years ago for the German-speaking students coming from the Swiss Educational Association Bangkok or the CDSC Chiang Mai. The programme never took off as the Department of Labour considered "working" during an apprenticeship programme the same as "working" as an expatriate. As the students had no proven track of professional background the whole programme ...... was moved to Singapore, where it works beautifully.

I sent my kids (educated here over 12 years at international schools here) back to my native Switzerland for the final formation in apprenticeship programmes; both have top jobs here in Thailand with expatriate perks.

How sad to see so much local talent going down the toilet due to the ignorance of local authorites; latter being entrusted to keep the unskilled .. unskilled and the stupid .. stupid. The price Thailand will have to pay over the next two, three generations will by far outreach the money the powers-to-be stole from their uneducated and untrained electorate!

Excellent and illustrative post. The prevailing mindset / education or better mis-education retards development in every way.

Today the motorbike taxi driver I used had not buckled his chin strap. I explained in Thai in a kindly caring way (told him I say this like your brother) about this and about risking easy death if not a painful hospital stay. He appeared to not care at all nor thank me for my caring thoughts. Very sadly it is a tiny % of society that functions at the international standard.