Educate students 'to fill in the gaps'

[Thai at Heart]

Well on the surface it does indeed look like a good idea.

The mechanics of bringing it into being will need designing before they can start.

There is how ever one question I would like answered.

With 1% unemployed where are they going to get the people to train.

Do people expect a massive influx of workers into Thailand when AESN comes in to being. Many will come and realize they are no better off with the cost of living being what it is and no controls in place or on the drawing boards to stop it.

Do you really believe the 1% unemployed number?

If you take out the ones who are unemployable and the ones who can't sober up or clean up long enough to hold a job yes I do also not include the ones who are living off of their spouces income and have no need to work.

This is a number that I have seen thrown about a lot and never challenged.

Do you have another number. I have no idea of what statistics or records they are using to arrive at that figure. I could throw in the I saw a help wanted sign so there fore my figures are right but that would be a misleading statement. So I will just go with the one they give out. That is after they throw out the ones I have mentioned.

It's the number that is used in the Thai calculation, but bears little to reality. It is vital in measuring it in the west because it often relates to how many people are gaining benefits. Every country has its caveats also in their numbers.

Few register as unemployed because they don't gain benefits from it. Then they don't register as actively searching because there is no official government system to help job seekers to find work.

1% is the figure they have but I think it is not accurate. Doesn't mean I believe the USA or UK methodology either for their numbers either.

[zyphodb]

New Thai Education Minister throws out a couple of seemingly logical ideas to justify his new position & keep face, knowing fully well that they will NEVER be acted upon as the mindset of the rich of all parties in this Country is to keep the vast majority of people uneducated, so that they can carry on lining their pockets at their expense without them realising it, while the rich kids go abroad for a 'decent' education so that they can come back & one day rule the Serfs & keep up the family's traditional powerbase & make even more Money ...

Same ol' Same ol'

[SICHONSTEVE]

Get rid if that saving face culture, stop chasing and worshipping for those overrated degree and testing testing testing exam-only approach that trillion Kachillians of students forget anyway and wasted their time just for a piece of Masters and doctoral overrated paper, just in order to avoid jobs in which they have to soul their hands with dirt and instead working in influential offices where they sit on their lazy behinds all day long and waiting for their paychecks...

Focus on promoting engineering and machinery and environmental sciences which this country really needs,.... stop that university degree insanity now, because it reduces common senses and affect social behavior

This is PRECISELY what I advocated in a post on a different education topic. It just makes so much more sense to train and educate people in vocational jobs that they CAN DO to fill an ugently needed void where there is a shortage of skilled labour rather than waste the time teaching them something that they haven't got a clue about and is effectively totally worthless to them and Thai society on the whole.

Indeed, degree's and higher qualifications are complete nonsense in my mind unless they are based on professional and practical subjects. If anyone disagrees with this then please feel free to explain what good a degree in 'neolithic art' or 'history of the Byzantine era' is to anybody. Most of these weirdo wasters in society end up manning the tills of the local Tesco's (if they are lucky) as that is all they are good for.

I think that this government is the most abject government Thailand has ever had but I have to 'champion' this policy as it makes so much more sense than all of the other policies they have implemented over their two years of mis-government/mis-management, combined.

Having said that, it is not rocket science!! It has simply taken me by surprise that someone in this government has actually resolved to look into something that makes sense in every way and goes against everything that this government stands for!!

I hope he 'pulls it off' as at least they can claim they will leave some kind of a legacy as having made a single improvement in their otherwise disastrous tenure!!

[Spare]

Thai student should all learn English from Farang teacher first.

[swifty5x5]

Hub of filling in the gaps.

[backtonormal]

Somebody saved me the trouble of writing it

.......apart from the security of being a civil servant with guaranteed employment and a pension, and the extraordinary cultural respect for the profession, there is little incentive to choose a future as a teacher in a government school. As a result, most classes in secondary schools are overcrowded with often as many as sixty students in a classroom, a situation that continues to favour the rote system that is firmly anchored in Thai culture as the only method possible.

As teaching by rote requires little pedagogic skill, once qualified — apart from weekend seminars which are considered to be part of the reward system — teachers tend to resist attempts to encourage them to engage in any forms of further training to improve their subject knowledge and to adopt new methodologies which will require them to use more initiative and to be more creative.

Students are not encouraged to develop analytical and critical thinking skills, which is clearly demonstrated by their inability to complete a cloze test, or to grasp a notion through context. The teachers will avoid introducing dialogue into the classroom or eliciting response from the students — to give a wrong answer would be to lose face in the presence of one's peers, a situation that in Thai culture must always be avoided.

Dr. Adith Cheosokul, professor, Chulalongkorn University, September 1, 2002: "Thai kids have no courage to question their teachers… foreign students are very eager to communicate with their teachers. The Thais are usually silent in class. I think it's the culture. Our students tend to uphold teachers as demi-gods" — a perception that is reinforced by the celebration of wai khru (literally 'praise the teacher') day, in all schools and colleges shortly after the beginning of the new school year, where during a festive general assembly, the students file before the teachers on their knees and offer them gifts, usually of real or hand-crafted flowers.

The essence of education therefore still hinges first and foremost on the traditional values of Buddhism, respect for the king, the monkhood, the teachers, and the family (in that order) through the rote method. Whilst indisputably very noble, these features are the main hurdle to the implementation of modern educational methodology and the development of a Western cultural approach to

communication.

Bleat on all you like but what is wrong could be put right simply by reversing or discarding some or all of the above. Personally the first thing I would do is ban military style uniforms for teachers

Edited September 23, 2013 by backtonormal

[chrisinth]

A lot of Thai bashing going on if TV members read the article the minister says the vocational commission should work with industry to design vocational courses and qualification to meet their needs. So at present he says exactly what you are all saying. Thai school leavers don't have the required skills. Common sense isn't it?

Perhaps some of you lot should sign up and learn how to read.

Whereas it should be applauded that the government is openly admitting to shortcomings in their vocational programmes, there is still a lot to do to change what they have now.

Having just learnt to read, when I see ludicrous statement like:

"he said he wanted the commission to set up a new model for vocational education with the aim of implementing it in the next academic year"

if this is indeed the case, then it will be doomed to failure as this is nowhere near enough time to implement these types of changes.

IMHO of course.......................

[hellodolly]

A lot of Thai bashing going on if TV members read the article the minister says the vocational commission should work with industry to design vocational courses and qualification to meet their needs. So at present he says exactly what you are all saying. Thai school leavers don't have the required skills. Common sense isn't it?

Perhaps some of you lot should sign up and learn how to read.

Whereas it should be applauded that the government is openly admitting to shortcomings in their vocational programmes, there is still a lot to do to change what they have now.

Having just learnt to read, when I see ludicrous statement like:

"he said he wanted the commission to set up a new model for vocational education with the aim of implementing it in the next academic year"

if this is indeed the case, then it will be doomed to failure as this is nowhere near enough time to implement these types of changes.

IMHO of course.......................

Well first off this is nothing new. The preceding minister came right out and said that the whole system needs overhauling. Look what happened to him. The present minister will be gone before they can even draw up a plan and the new minister will say the whole system needs rebuilding. In the mean time nothing will change. The whole system will take two generations to change. You can't just say don't pass them if they haven't earned it. You will in affect keep the students in the same grade for several years. You need teachers who know the subject and can teach it.

They must get rid of the dead wood in the universities who do not know how to teach and replace them with people who do know how. Or at least willing to try. There is no quick fix. It will take time and until the government stops using the minister of education as a reward for backing them requiring a constant parade of new faces it will not happen