Education Min Phongthep admits Thai education system unsatisfactory

[gerrythepoet]

Well I never, a government minister who talks some sense.

Yingluck should have him stuffed.

Give him respect he is US educated and is a very obliging and knowledgeable individual who is personally taking responsibility to sort out the Ed system. He is trying to loosen the grip of the military style teachers however he has not made a lot of friends in fact quite the oppposite. He needs to put English as the second language for Thais back on the agenda that was thrown out because it smelt of colonialism. Utter bullshit but that is what a former Minister sounded off.

Those of us who are Teachers need to give constructive criticism and get the future of Thailand on the right path.

Sabaii Sabaii has to get shoved out of the window and the focus must be on supporting policies that will get the ball rolling. AEC whether you like it or not will arrive in 2015.

Thailand may be for the Thais but the rude awakening will knock them into action as they see their jobs taken by more educated enthusiastic and focused Non Thais primarily Philippinos, Burmese and Malaysians.

[schondie]

After trying to teach here for a few years, I really hoped to see an improvement in this education system but nothing has ever changed. Primary teachers with zero knowledge of English teaching English. What sort of foundation does that give the students?

I'm so disillusioned with this country and the belief that they are doing us a favour by employing us for low wages that I'm off to China in October. The whole system needs ripping down and starting all over again but I doubt that'll ever happen. A good start would be to pension off all the dead wood teachers and get some keen young teachers in with far better teaching methods.

Is there really any hope of things ever changing? I doubt it very much.

[gerrythepoet]

I am the only English teacher all the other subjects are in Thai for M4-M6. Everyone of my past students for the last 3 years have gone onto University the majority headed for Medicine. Yes the system works if Thais learn science and mathematics in Thai and not English. When they get to University the books are in English so there lies the dilemma.

[Thai at Heart]

I am the only English teacher all the other subjects are in Thai for M4-M6. Everyone of my past students for the last 3 years have gone onto University the majority headed for Medicine. Yes the system works if Thais learn science and mathematics in Thai and not English. When they get to University the books are in English so there lies the dilemma.

I think they need to work out what they want? Not every student is going to be reciting Shakespeare or decifering Stephen Hawkings.

They need to really aim for percentages of fluent, capable and good English speakers, and tailor the system to that. As I wrote, why they bother teaching 7-12 year olds mathematics in both English and Thai I really don't know. You don't need to have a native english speaker get you to say hypoteneuse in the same way as a lord of the manner. Understanding what it is, is of far greater use. A vaucole, or a chloroplast is what it is. That is vocab training, and doesn't need compulsory lesson time to be taken out of the school day.

Then treat English as a compulsory part of the curriculum, standing alone, and use all the extra hours given up by teaching Maths, Social and Science in English which duplicates the Thai curriculum, and use that time to teach in Thai. I find it quite bizarre that anyone thinks using school time to teach an academic subject in both English and Thai in duplication, is a good use of time. Then stream the kids with an aptitude and desire to learn English into a top stream, and to pursue English and continue with the less capable at a more basic level of English.

[Yooyung]

_{There are just too many people in jobs that really matter that are incompetent. I know I am stating the obvious but its the root of the problem. I have met a few taxi drivers that should be teaching English and many...many Thai English teachers that should be driving taxis.}

_{I REALLY wish the best for Thailand for this whole ASEAN thing. Its going to be quite a show.}

[UbonOz]

There is a school down Hua Hin area that only uses English as first language at school and Thai for approximately half an hour a day.

A friend of mine sent his daughter there and she has done very well. She now has three language skills, written and spoken, English, German and Thai.

She now has a very good job with an international hotel company.

[BrianCR]

Perhaps next year some of that money will go towards buying TEXTBOOKS for the students' English classes.

Textbooks are used (or not used) to teach grammar, something many students are already okay with. What is needed are QUALIFIED native speaking teachers who can train students to think, speak and pronounce correctly. English programmes in schools are a good idea, currently being ruined by bad Western and Thai teaching staff!

[bkkgriz]

"The ministry will, therefore, bring in more English-speaking teachers to teach Thai kids."

And then the ministry will make said teachers jump through so many hoops and try to attain ever changing goalposts that the teachers will get fed up and go teach in countries that actually want English teachers. The "system" that deals with foreign teachers here may be more broken than the education aspect. Any teacher that actually tries to follow the visa rules and teaching certificate rules will know what I am talking about. I thought getting all my paperwork done in Korea was difficult, until I moved to this basket case of a country.

[bkkgriz]

My wife's daughter goes to an "upgraded" school in BKK. Her daily "English" lesson consists of copying a paragraph from the board into her notebook. Doesn't have to read it or understand it, just has to copy it. I'm sure there is lots of opportunity for improvement on something like that.

On a similar subject, I wonder how the Tourist Police are doing with their "fluency in English in six months" that was promised, oh, about six months ago.

They may also consider hiring some actual teachers instead of backpackers with easily-purchased TEFL certificates straight off the copy machine, who just want to stay longer than their tourist visa allows so they can party and bed as many young girls (or boys) as possible. There are loads of qualified retired teachers from the states and UK who would probably love to take on some work - or would the incompetent Thai teachers then 'lose face'?

Ah good, another one slagging off teachers who work in Thailand. I know that the ESL industry is riddled with lots of losers and scammers, but I think it is much better today than in the past. I am a teacher here and I work my ass off to help my students learn English. I also know lots of others who do the same. Not all of us are here for the reasons you stated. Having worked in Thai schools for 8 years now, I think a retired teacher would last about one week over here. The daily nonsense of a typical Thai school day would send them over the bend. It's a great idea and I would welcome more qualified teachers. But in reality, those teachers would look at the conditions and the salary and go back home to enjoy retirement.

[newermonkey]

I have observed that the reason Thais don't understand lots of things is because of the Thai language, when educational literature is translated from English to Thai it becomes, literally a joke.

Thai as a language has no place in the modern world, coming to Thailand as Sanskrit as an ancient language was bastardized into a new language (Thai previously was mainly only a spoken language)

Fix the the English skills first so the Thai people can learn the other subjects otherwise just accept that Thailand will always be a backward country as is many African states that refuse to give up their crippled and inadequate languages. The Thai language is incapable of explaining complex subjects,

In a thousand years English will be the only language on the planet except for a few desperately poor backward areas (the planets native language) so the sooner the education ministry accepts that the better.

When sentences of Thai are directly translated to English it resembles what one would regard as "Cave Man Language"

ie;

When in a high class restaurant the Thai will say "Me hungry much" or just "hungry"

When asked is Khun Chy at home all day today? the Thai will answer "in"

When asked exactly how many kilometers is the the next village down this road. The reply is: "far" or "far much"

Its very good the minister agrees with me, so perhaps now moves can now be made to change the ancient system?

Do any other TV bloggers have any more gems of Thai expressiveness?

[pisico]

After trying to teach here for a few years, I really hoped to see an improvement in this education system but nothing has ever changed. Primary teachers with zero knowledge of English teaching English. What sort of foundation does that give the students?

I'm so disillusioned with this country and the belief that they are doing us a favour by employing us for low wages that I'm off to China in October. The whole system needs ripping down and starting all over again but I doubt that'll ever happen. A good start would be to pension off all the dead wood teachers and get some keen young teachers in with far better teaching methods.

Is there really any hope of things ever changing? I doubt it very much.

Seniority and hierarchy rule in Thailand above qualifications.

[newermonkey]

My wife's daughter goes to an "upgraded" school in BKK. Her daily "English" lesson consists of copying a paragraph from the board into her notebook. Doesn't have to read it or understand it, just has to copy it. I'm sure there is lots of opportunity for improvement on something like that.

On a similar subject, I wonder how the Tourist Police are doing with their "fluency in English in six months" that was promised, oh, about six months ago.

They may also consider hiring some actual teachers instead of backpackers with easily-purchased TEFL certificates straight off the copy machine, who just want to stay longer than their tourist visa allows so they can party and bed as many young girls (or boys) as possible. There are loads of qualified retired teachers from the states and UK who would probably love to take on some work - or would the incompetent Thai teachers then 'lose face'?

Ah good, another one slagging off teachers who work in Thailand. I know that the ESL industry is riddled with lots of losers and scammers, but I think it is much better today than in the past. I am a teacher here and I work my ass off to help my students learn English. I also know lots of others who do the same. Not all of us are here for the reasons you stated. Having worked in Thai schools for 8 years now, I think a retired teacher would last about one week over here. The daily nonsense of a typical Thai school day would send them over the bend. It's a great idea and I would welcome more qualified teachers. But in reality, those teachers would look at the conditions and the salary and go back home to enjoy retirement.

About 10 years ago I happened to be at an upcountry junior school in connection with my work. I was interested to speak to the "English Teacher" When I met her I said "Its nice to meet someone with whom I can communicate with and perhaps engage in some conversation etc... Her reply was "Aly wha?" which loosely translates to "excuse me"?

I found out that in fact this English teacher could not speak or understand a word of English so what the heck was she teaching the kids? Apparently she was conducting her "English Classes" entirely in Thai !!!

[Spalpeen]

I have observed that the reason Thais don't understand lots of things is because of the Thai language, when educational literature is translated from English to Thai it becomes, literally a joke.

Thai as a language has no place in the modern world, coming to Thailand as Sanskrit as an ancient language was bastardized into a new language (Thai previously was mainly only a spoken language)

Fix the the English skills first so the Thai people can learn the other subjects otherwise just accept that Thailand will always be a backward country as is many African states that refuse to give up their crippled and inadequate languages. The Thai language is incapable of explaining complex subjects,

In a thousand years English will be the only language on the planet except for a few desperately poor backward areas (the planets native language) so the sooner the education ministry accepts that the better.

When sentences of Thai are directly translated to English it resembles what one would regard as "Cave Man Language"

ie;

When in a high class restaurant the Thai will say "Me hungry much" or just "hungry"

When asked is Khun Chy at home all day today? the Thai will answer "in"

When asked exactly how many kilometers is the the next village down this road. The reply is: "far" or "far much"

Its very good the minister agrees with me, so perhaps now moves can now be made to change the ancient system?

Do any other TV bloggers have any more gems of Thai expressiveness?

All very true. The more Thai I learn the more I realise how limited it is as a language. Part of the reason why Thai music is so crap is that the tonal nature of the language, along with the limited number of sounds, severely limits what they can sing.

ASEAN is the next big thing in SE Asia, but you can be sure the Malays aren't going to be learning Indonesian, the Burmese aren't going to be learning Vietnamese, and nobody is going to be learning Thai. There's only one international language that they all share.

[Thaddeus]

My wife's daughter goes to an "upgraded" school in BKK. Her daily "English" lesson consists of copying a paragraph from the board into her notebook. Doesn't have to read it or understand it, just has to copy it. I'm sure there is lots of opportunity for improvement on something like that.

On a similar subject, I wonder how the Tourist Police are doing with their "fluency in English in six months" that was promised, oh, about six months ago.

They may also consider hiring some actual teachers instead of backpackers with easily-purchased TEFL certificates straight off the copy machine, who just want to stay longer than their tourist visa allows so they can party and bed as many young girls (or boys) as possible. There are loads of qualified retired teachers from the states and UK who would probably love to take on some work - or would the incompetent Thai teachers then 'lose face'?

Ah good, another one slagging off teachers who work in Thailand. I know that the ESL industry is riddled with lots of losers and scammers, but I think it is much better today than in the past. I am a teacher here and I work my ass off to help my students learn English. I also know lots of others who do the same. Not all of us are here for the reasons you stated. Having worked in Thai schools for 8 years now, I think a retired teacher would last about one week over here. The daily nonsense of a typical Thai school day would send them over the bend. It's a great idea and I would welcome more qualified teachers. But in reality, those teachers would look at the conditions and the salary and go back home to enjoy retirement.

About 10 years ago I happened to be at an upcountry junior school in connection with my work. I was interested to speak to the "English Teacher" When I met her I said "Its nice to meet someone with whom I can communicate with and perhaps engage in some conversation etc... Her reply was "Aly wha?" which loosely translates to "excuse me"?

I found out that in fact this English teacher could not speak or understand a word of English so what the heck was she teaching the kids? Apparently she was conducting her "English Classes" entirely in Thai !!!

Aly (arai) wha (wah) and not arai nah ...... are you sure she said that?

[Spalpeen]

A better translation of 'Arai nah?' is....'You whaaaaaa?'

[Fullstop]

the ministry has drawn up some measures to restructure the system.

Which will probably mean keeping the face saving 'No Fail Policy' as the backbone and building a nice shiny new exterior around it.

Despite a tremendous amount of money Thailand has put into its educational system, the minister says the result is still unsatisfactory

I once spent millions trying to teach pigs to fly ... but alas.

Edited June 25, 2013 by Fullstop

[schondie]

There is a school down Hua Hin area that only uses English as first language at school and Thai for approximately half an hour a day.

A friend of mine sent his daughter there and she has done very well. She now has three language skills, written and spoken, English, German and Thai.

She now has a very good job with an international hotel company.

I met some of these students at a speech competition a couple of years ago. All I can say is "Wow". The students exude such confidence in their spoken English.

As I listened to them converse with their friends and their Thai teachers in English only I knew they would do well that day and in their future careers.

[Yooyung]

I have observed that the reason Thais don't understand lots of things is because of the Thai language, when educational literature is translated from English to Thai it becomes, literally a joke.

Thai as a language has no place in the modern world, coming to Thailand as Sanskrit as an ancient language was bastardized into a new language (Thai previously was mainly only a spoken language)

Fix the the English skills first so the Thai people can learn the other subjects otherwise just accept that Thailand will always be a backward country as is many African states that refuse to give up their crippled and inadequate languages. The Thai language is incapable of explaining complex subjects,

In a thousand years English will be the only language on the planet except for a few desperately poor backward areas (the planets native language) so the sooner the education ministry accepts that the better.

When sentences of Thai are directly translated to English it resembles what one would regard as "Cave Man Language"

ie;

When in a high class restaurant the Thai will say "Me hungry much" or just "hungry"

When asked is Khun Chy at home all day today? the Thai will answer "in"

When asked exactly how many kilometers is the the next village down this road. The reply is: "far" or "far much"

Its very good the minister agrees with me, so perhaps now moves can now be made to change the ancient system?

Do any other TV bloggers have any more gems of Thai expressiveness?

A harsh assessment but in some ways true. As a person who speaks Thai to a reasonable standard I am often amused by the rather flattering translations of what is being said in Thai movies, once its translated into English.

[thunder30101]

Alot of very good comments and some unrealistic ones. Until you look at the system as a whole you cant even begin to suggest any meaningful changes. From the top down, admin and teachers are all educated from the same system that is currently failing the children of thailand, so how do you expect any change from them ??? Add in the " We are Thai mentality" and you will not see any change for maybe 2 or 3 generations, maybe. There is rice in the fields and fish in the pond my friends.Honestly if I had children here I would work 5 jobs back home before I allowed them to be educated in thailand.

[scorecard]

My son attend a privat school in Surin 1 class or patum 1 or what they call it, english program. The english book they are using is written by two thais, i guess well paid for their effort. It is just terrible. When i complain to the teachers they just say, yes its all about practise. But when a 7 year old have to learn words he dont understand, i understand why the thais dont speak english. And i pay 25000 bth a term for this kind of rubbish, im at a loss what to do. Move to Bangkok or Chiang Mai to get him into an international school or what.

The total cost of books for my son was about 2000 baht for the year. He is in grade 4. These are mostly books from Singapore which are fine. They basically follow the primary course from the UK, Singapore style. The science book is based on the Thai curriculum but written by foreigners. I've not found any conceptual or grammatical errors in any book so far. There's no need to use material poorly written by overpaid Thais who don't have fluent grasp of the language, and won't accept there are any errors in their work!

My kids are using the Singapore books also.

Still don't grasp why they teach science and maths in two languages and then English separately also. Surely it would be better to teach English as a stand alone subject and let maths and science stay in Thai?

Total duplication of the subject matter is a waste of time massively increases the requirement to find more and more native speakers to cover the science and maths subjects.

I take your point, however there are education experts who believe that there should be specific English classes and then selected other subjects should be taught in English (and also the mother tongue) as very good reinforcement work.

Some countries how have policy which says that there should be multiply approaches to English development (all 4 skills) until about the end Primary 4 or 5, then reduce the time spent of English development.

The aim being that by Primary 4 or 5 English has a very strong root and students have the ability to automatically / comfortably handle relatively complex English, have a very big vocabulary etc., but not quite native speaker level.

The Philippines has taken an approach like this for decades.

China, Indonesia and Vietnam are now well into putting this into place.

I understand many European / Scandinavian countries also use this approach.

What is different, country by country, is the opportunities outside of the classroom to get a little / a lot of exposure to English, especially listening and speaking.

Unfortunately the 'outside the classroom' English exposure in Thailand, for 99% of Thai kids is limited to very limited. And in some circumstances exposure to written English, for Thai kids, is close to non-existent.

[Torrens54]

My son attend a privat school in Surin 1 class or patum 1 or what they call it, english program. The english book they are using is written by two thais, i guess well paid for their effort. It is just terrible. When i complain to the teachers they just say, yes its all about practise. But when a 7 year old have to learn words he dont understand, i understand why the thais dont speak english. And i pay 25000 bth a term for this kind of rubbish, im at a loss what to do. Move to Bangkok or Chiang Mai to get him into an international school or what.

Our 13 Y.O. daughter attends WATTANOTHAIPAYAP School in CNX. (My wife is also a former student from the school.) We were fortunate enough to have our little girl attend school for a couple of years when we lived in Australia and I was worried how her English language might "suffer" back in Thailand. Pleased to say that Wattanothaipayap is excellent. We even have regular home visits by the Teaching staff, in fact our daughter's English Teacher called in just last week. If you are thinking of moving to CNX for your Son's education, I'd strongly suggest you contact the school first as I know there are many people wanting to send their kids there because of its great reputation. Wishing you all the best!

Murray.

[scorecard]

Alot of very good comments and some unrealistic ones. Until you look at the system as a whole you cant even begin to suggest any meaningful changes. From the top down, admin and teachers are all educated from the same system that is currently failing the children of thailand, so how do you expect any change from them ??? Add in the " We are Thai mentality" and you will not see any change for maybe 2 or 3 generations, maybe. There is rice in the fields and fish in the pond my friends.Honestly if I had children here I would work 5 jobs back home before I allowed them to be educated in thailand.

Agree, and I emphasize the aspect of teachers and change.

I'm well aware, from a family member, of schools where current Thai teachers (I mean gov't. schools) have made it very clear they are insulted by any suggestion that they need to change their teaching techniques, and have made it very clear they will refuse to participate in any form of training.

In one school (a large famous gov't primary / high school in Bkk) this all came to a crisis (protest) when the headmistress announced 'training'.

A very large % of the teachers demanded that the headmistress sign a guarantee that the announced training would be cancelled and it would never ever be mentioned again.

She signed.

[Thai at Heart]

My son attend a privat school in Surin 1 class or patum 1 or what they call it, english program. The english book they are using is written by two thais, i guess well paid for their effort. It is just terrible. When i complain to the teachers they just say, yes its all about practise. But when a 7 year old have to learn words he dont understand, i understand why the thais dont speak english. And i pay 25000 bth a term for this kind of rubbish, im at a loss what to do. Move to Bangkok or Chiang Mai to get him into an international school or what.

The total cost of books for my son was about 2000 baht for the year. He is in grade 4. These are mostly books from Singapore which are fine. They basically follow the primary course from the UK, Singapore style. The science book is based on the Thai curriculum but written by foreigners. I've not found any conceptual or grammatical errors in any book so far. There's no need to use material poorly written by overpaid Thais who don't have fluent grasp of the language, and won't accept there are any errors in their work!

My kids are using the Singapore books also.

Still don't grasp why they teach science and maths in two languages and then English separately also. Surely it would be better to teach English as a stand alone subject and let maths and science stay in Thai?

Total duplication of the subject matter is a waste of time massively increases the requirement to find more and more native speakers to cover the science and maths subjects.

I take your point, however there are education experts who believe that there should be specific English classes and then selected other subjects should be taught in English (and also the mother tongue) as very good reinforcement work.

Some countries how have policy which says that there should be multiply approaches to English development (all 4 skills) until about the end Primary 4 or 5, then reduce the time spent of English development.

The aim being that by Primary 4 or 5 English has a very strong root and students have the ability to automatically / comfortably handle relatively complex English, have a very big vocabulary etc., but not quite native speaker level.

The Philippines has taken an approach like this for decades.

China, Indonesia and Vietnam are now well into putting this into place.

I understand many European / Scandinavian countries also use this approach.

What is different, country by country, is the opportunities outside of the classroom to get a little / a lot of exposure to English, especially listening and speaking.

Unfortunately the 'outside the classroom' English exposure in Thailand, for 99% of Thai kids is limited to very limited. And in some circumstances exposure to written English, for Thai kids, is close to non-existent.

It's all about balance. I don't care which language they learn mathematics in. As long as they get it. My kids are bilingual, so maybe I overplay my point, but what I see is the Thai kids learn maths in Thai and ignore largely what they are taught in English maths.

[UbonOz]

There is a school down Hua Hin area that only uses English as first language at school and Thai for approximately half an hour a day.

A friend of mine sent his daughter there and she has done very well. She now has three language skills, written and spoken, English, German and Thai.

She now has a very good job with an international hotel company.

I met some of these students at a speech competition a couple of years ago. All I can say is "Wow". The students exude such confidence in their spoken English.

As I listened to them converse with their friends and their Thai teachers in English only I knew they would do well that day and in their future careers.

The school must be doing something right.

It was always a pleasure to be around those kids.

[scorecard]

My son attend a privat school in Surin 1 class or patum 1 or what they call it, english program. The english book they are using is written by two thais, i guess well paid for their effort. It is just terrible. When i complain to the teachers they just say, yes its all about practise. But when a 7 year old have to learn words he dont understand, i understand why the thais dont speak english. And i pay 25000 bth a term for this kind of rubbish, im at a loss what to do. Move to Bangkok or Chiang Mai to get him into an international school or what.

Our 13 Y.O. daughter attends WATTANOTHAIPAYAP School in CNX. (My wife is also a former student from the school.) We were fortunate enough to have our little girl attend school for a couple of years when we lived in Australia and I was worried how her English language might "suffer" back in Thailand. Pleased to say that Wattanothaipayap is excellent. We even have regular home visits by the Teaching staff, in fact our daughter's English Teacher called in just last week. If you are thinking of moving to CNX for your Son's education, I'd strongly suggest you contact the school first as I know there are many people wanting to send their kids there because of its great reputation. Wishing you all the best!

Murray.

Varee Chiang Mai school is also well worth a look. They have a full Thai stream and an EP program. My Thai granddaughter has been there now for 3 years (Primary 3 - EP program) and my family are very happy with all aspects of her education. Their farang teachers are all fully qualified

I encourage you to check the Varee Chiang Mai website, get the number and ask to speak to Ajahn Dani (Thai lady, #2 in the school, speaks perfect English, good listener, very pleasant lady, she is a professional educator, highly qualified, taught at schools in England for many years).

Ajahn Dani also teaches some classes so you might have to wait a little for an opportunity to talk with her, but well worth the wait. She will never talk about beautiful buildings etc., she talks about education and she can answer any education questions you might have.

Their fees are not too bad for a full EP program.

Edited June 25, 2013 by scorecard

[MaxLee]

In summary we can say:

Business as usual, with even more crap policy that only creates international headlines, but suck in reality and rips off the faceless majority and clueless foreigners of the country, but favors the most corrupt and criminal among the Thailand political elite,...

... Rising cost of school and education commodities, more mega complication pre-pre-pre- and pre exams, that will lead to more and more and more and millions of admission tests to get accepted into the do called universities...

Amazing Thailand propaganda brainwashing..

[johnlandy]

"Despite a tremendous amount of money Thailand has put into its educational system" and officials have then taken out.

If the money in the way it was intended by people who knew what they were doing, Thailand would have an international standard education system.

I would suggest he first work out where this tremendous amount of money has been spent, because it appears that for every 100 baht in, 20 to 30 baht miraculously disappears.

Whats the difference if it was all spent on education the students wouldn't know any more than they know now.

What this guy (the minister) is saying makes sense but the chances of any change, any improvement is light years away. With a country wide average IQ level 10% ++ less than developed nations

how can the realm hope to realize any improvements of consequence. Thailand is today where many countries were 50, 100, 150 years ago. They need to employ Singaporean or Hong Kong teachers and get rid of the bottom feeding Thai teachers.

The Thais demonstrate their inability to teach when the majority of Thai teenagers have to take special learning as a norm, 4 - 5 nights a week.

[pb1936]

An amazing admission by a Government minister ! Likely he will be moved to an inactive post.

It's very hard to believe that anything like 20 per cent of revenue goes to education............. it's obviously not spent on teaching or provision of good text books.

[newermonkey]

My wife's daughter goes to an "upgraded" school in BKK. Her daily "English" lesson consists of copying a paragraph from the board into her notebook. Doesn't have to read it or understand it, just has to copy it. I'm sure there is lots of opportunity for improvement on something like that.

On a similar subject, I wonder how the Tourist Police are doing with their "fluency in English in six months" that was promised, oh, about six months ago.

They may also consider hiring some actual teachers instead of backpackers with easily-purchased TEFL certificates straight off the copy machine, who just want to stay longer than their tourist visa allows so they can party and bed as many young girls (or boys) as possible. There are loads of qualified retired teachers from the states and UK who would probably love to take on some work - or would the incompetent Thai teachers then 'lose face'?

Ah good, another one slagging off teachers who work in Thailand. I know that the ESL industry is riddled with lots of losers and scammers, but I think it is much better today than in the past. I am a teacher here and I work my ass off to help my students learn English. I also know lots of others who do the same. Not all of us are here for the reasons you stated. Having worked in Thai schools for 8 years now, I think a retired teacher would last about one week over here. The daily nonsense of a typical Thai school day would send them over the bend. It's a great idea and I would welcome more qualified teachers. But in reality, those teachers would look at the conditions and the salary and go back home to enjoy retirement.

About 10 years ago I happened to be at an upcountry junior school in connection with my work. I was interested to speak to the "English Teacher" When I met her I said "Its nice to meet someone with whom I can communicate with and perhaps engage in some conversation etc... Her reply was "Aly wha?" which loosely translates to "excuse me"?

I found out that in fact this English teacher could not speak or understand a word of English so what the heck was she teaching the kids? Apparently she was conducting her "English Classes" entirely in Thai !!!

Aly (arai) wha (wah) and not arai nah ...... are you sure she said that?

Yes she did! I was shocked and guess she thought the Farang dint understand, mistakenly. (yes should have been - Arai wah !!) when she said that she was laughing like a mad woman. "weird for sure"

[newermonkey]

the ministry has drawn up some measures to restructure the system.

Which will probably mean keeping the face saving 'No Fail Policy' as the backbone and building a nice shiny new exterior around it.

Despite a tremendous amount of money Thailand has put into its educational system, the minister says the result is still unsatisfactory

I once spent millions trying to teach pigs to fly ... but alas.