Language schools in Thailand's border provinces see spike in number of students

[webfact]

Language schools in border provinces see spike in number of students

BANGKOK, 9 April 2014 (NNT) - Several language schools in Thailand’s border provinces are seeing a spike in the number of both Thai and foreign students, as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is fast approaching.

Mr. Pisut Yongkamol, Principal of the Sarasas Ektra School, revealed that parents have shown more interest in sending their offspring to schools with international programs teaching in local and English languages simultaneously.

The popularity are seen in such border provinces as Nong Khai, and Chiang Rai.

He pointed out that the majority of these parents are foreign businessmen and investors, as well as local business owners who want their children to have English language background which will be useful in furthering their studies and helping their parents’ business in the AEC era beginning in 2015.

The School Headmaster said that the demand for foreign teachers has increased in all ASEAN countries. However, Thailand has imposed a strict regulation requiring foreign job seekers to obtain prior permits to teach in the kingdom.

Mr. Pisut thus implored related authorities to be more lenient about such a requirement in order to facilitate recruitment of foreign teachers.

-- NNT 2014-04-09

[Somtamnication]

About 20 years too late.

[Som wat]

Any native English speaker that has a background police check and some sort of TEFL Ccert should be not only be allowed to teach, but actively helped with automatic one year visas and work permits. The aim of having a native speaker for every class in Thailand for at least one lesson a day from KG-M6.

This would be greatly beneficial to the future of Thailand, but would eat the Thais up, making it so easy for Westerners here.

The ASEAN hub of cutting off one's nose tomspite one's face.

[phuketsub]

Any native English speaker that has a background police check and some sort of TEFL Ccert should be not only be allowed to teach, but actively helped with automatic one year visas and work permits. The aim of having a native speaker for every class in Thailand for at least one lesson a day from KG-M6.

This would be greatly beneficial to the future of Thailand, but would eat the Thais up, making it so easy for Westerners here.

The ASEAN hub of cutting off one's nose tomspite one's face.

Not so sure about that; yes the paperwork is a pain, but the real problem is the Thai government education system, the huge class sizes, all the days off and standing on ceremony that eat into classroom time, etc.

Corruption is also rampant in the MoE. It seldom gets mentioned, but it siphons off resources big time.

There are more native English speakers working as teachers in Thailand by far than any of its Asean neighbors, yet the country still comes in last in terms of proficiency.

I don't believe a TEFL certificate should be required to teach here and haven't noted any overall increase in teacher quality since it became a requirement. I guess it is good for teachers starting at 'ground zero' in terms of experience, but I don't think it should be a requirement for experienced teachers who don't have it and don't want to waste time and money just to get a piece of paper...It's that type of paper-chasing mentality that is part of the problem, not the solution, IMHO...

[JeremyBowskill]

Any native English speaker that has a background police check and some sort of TEFL Ccert should be not only be allowed to teach, but actively helped with automatic one year visas and work permits. The aim of having a native speaker for every class in Thailand for at least one lesson a day from KG-M6.

This would be greatly beneficial to the future of Thailand, but would eat the Thais up, making it so easy for Westerners here.

The ASEAN hub of cutting off one's nose tomspite one's face.

Not so sure about that; yes the paperwork is a pain, but the real problem is the Thai government education system, the huge class sizes, all the days off and standing on ceremony that eat into classroom time, etc.

Corruption is also rampant in the MoE. It seldom gets mentioned, but it siphons off resources big time.

There are more native English speakers working as teachers in Thailand by far than any of its Asean neighbors, yet the country still comes in last in terms of proficiency.

I don't believe a TEFL certificate should be required to teach here and haven't noted any overall increase in teacher quality since it became a requirement. I guess it is good for teachers starting at 'ground zero' in terms of experience, but I don't think it should be a requirement for experienced teachers who don't have it and don't want to waste time and money just to get a piece of paper...It's that type of paper-chasing mentality that is part of the problem, not the solution, IMHO...

I don't believe anyone who was a brick layer, truck driver, factory worker, garbage man or any other profession other than teacher should teach English in Thailand. You want to blame the poor level of English on anything, then the level of utter rubbish teaching the language would be as good a place to start as any. Needless to say wages would need to improve to attract real teachers, but the utter cax masquerading as teachers is nothing short of shameless.

[Ulysses G.]

I don't believe anyone who was a brick layer, truck driver, factory worker, garbage man or any other profession other than teacher should teach English in Thailand.

Under those circumstances, only professional teachers who have a background in teaching EFL or ESL should be teaching. A history or math teacher is probably less qualified than a truck driver with a TEFL or RSA Certificate.

[metisdead]

A post containing overly derogatory generalizations toward Thais has been removed as well as the replies.

[RtotheC]

Any native English speaker that has a background police check and some sort of TEFL Ccert should be not only be allowed to teach, but actively helped with automatic one year visas and work permits. The aim of having a native speaker for every class in Thailand for at least one lesson a day from KG-M6.

This would be greatly beneficial to the future of Thailand, but would eat the Thais up, making it so easy for Westerners here.

The ASEAN hub of cutting off one's nose tomspite one's face.

Not so sure about that; yes the paperwork is a pain, but the real problem is the Thai government education system, the huge class sizes, all the days off and standing on ceremony that eat into classroom time, etc.

Corruption is also rampant in the MoE. It seldom gets mentioned, but it siphons off resources big time.

There are more native English speakers working as teachers in Thailand by far than any of its Asean neighbors, yet the country still comes in last in terms of proficiency.

I don't believe a TEFL certificate should be required to teach here and haven't noted any overall increase in teacher quality since it became a requirement. I guess it is good for teachers starting at 'ground zero' in terms of experience, but I don't think it should be a requirement for experienced teachers who don't have it and don't want to waste time and money just to get a piece of paper...It's that type of paper-chasing mentality that is part of the problem, not the solution, IMHO...

I don't believe anyone who was a brick layer, truck driver, factory worker, garbage man or any other profession other than teacher should teach English in Thailand. You want to blame the poor level of English on anything, then the level of utter rubbish teaching the language would be as good a place to start as any. Needless to say wages would need to improve to attract real teachers, but the utter cax masquerading as teachers is nothing short of shameless.

Having both TEFL and an English degree i would say that the TEFL provided much better training than the degree itself. To be honest, no degree in any field (even education) can make up for experience teaching in the field. Someone with a degree in education might discover that they have no classroom management skills once they start working. And if you narrow down the field to the point where only people with degrees in education can teach in Thailand, then the selection pool would be so low that those few who are eligible would then need to be paid higher salaries that most schools can't afford (supply and demand). Nearly every one here with a degree in education are already teaching in international schools making anywhere from 60,000 baht a month to 200,000+ a month.

I think the real problem here is the lack of interest from both the schools and students. They just don't care all that much.

[Muhendis]

The Thai attitude seems to be:-

We don't want any of them foreigners here teaching any mumbo jumbo to our kids.

[bigbamboo]

Any native English speaker that has a background police check and some sort of TEFL Ccert should be not only be allowed to teach, but actively helped with automatic one year visas and work permits. The aim of having a native speaker for every class in Thailand for at least one lesson a day from KG-M6.

This would be greatly beneficial to the future of Thailand, but would eat the Thais up, making it so easy for Westerners here.

The ASEAN hub of cutting off one's nose tomspite one's face.

The teaching of English should be actively promoted here especially now that Thailand, one of those unfortunate nations where the only people who speak their language are natives, is joining what is essentially an English speaking club in an English speaking world.

It is truly enlightening how many families want their children to learn English in inexpensive weekend classes and the number of foreigners who are happy to offer their services for nothing or practically nothing but are denied the opportunity due to the parochial attitude of the authorities here.

One sometimes wonders whether Thai rulers have the best interests of their people at heart.

[Konini]

What would be really, really good though is for the work permit laws to be relaxed so that people like myself with not much better to do could go to a Thai government school where the parents aren't rich enough to send their children to language schools and sit in on lessons for a few hours a week to help out with conversation and pronunciation. I've done this in Indonesia and enjoyed spending a little bit of time in a classroom. Once they got over their shyness, I found the vocabulary they had learnt quite impressive, but their pronunciation, taught by someone who in turn had learnt English from a local teacher, was often a fair way out and correcting it and just talking to them so they got a better idea of how conversation flows was helpful for them and rewarding for me.

I'm not a teacher, I've never wanted to be one as I don't have the patience, but I'm a native English speaker with time to spare who is willing to help. Neither do I in any way want to take work away from anyone. I know I'm not alone. Volunteering here is just too hard, and that's a real shame.

I totally agree with those lamenting the quality of 'teachers' here, some of them are appalling and should never be allowed near a classroom unless as a helper to a properly qualified teacher.

[darren84310]

Any native English speaker that has a background police check and some sort of TEFL Ccert should be not only be allowed to teach, but actively helped with automatic one year visas and work permits. The aim of having a native speaker for every class in Thailand for at least one lesson a day from KG-M6.

This would be greatly beneficial to the future of Thailand, but would eat the Thais up, making it so easy for Westerners here.

The ASEAN hub of cutting off one's nose tomspite one's face.

Not so sure about that; yes the paperwork is a pain, but the real problem is the Thai government education system, the huge class sizes, all the days off and standing on ceremony that eat into classroom time, etc.

Corruption is also rampant in the MoE. It seldom gets mentioned, but it siphons off resources big time.

There are more native English speakers working as teachers in Thailand by far than any of its Asean neighbors, yet the country still comes in last in terms of proficiency.

I don't believe a TEFL certificate should be required to teach here and haven't noted any overall increase in teacher quality since it became a requirement. I guess it is good for teachers starting at 'ground zero' in terms of experience, but I don't think it should be a requirement for experienced teachers who don't have it and don't want to waste time and money just to get a piece of paper...It's that type of paper-chasing mentality that is part of the problem, not the solution, IMHO...

I don't believe anyone who was a brick layer, truck driver, factory worker, garbage man or any other profession other than teacher should teach English in Thailand. You want to blame the poor level of English on anything, then the level of utter rubbish teaching the language would be as good a place to start as any. Needless to say wages would need to improve to attract real teachers, but the utter cax masquerading as teachers is nothing short of shameless.

Agree in part, but are you saying that no native teacher is better than having a native teacher?

To get the teachers you are talking about would mean paying 60,000 + a month

[fstarbkk]

The real problem here is that Thais are generally not that interested in LEARNING, but merely in PASSING EXAMS. You can take the horse to the water, but you can't make him drink.

This entire society is focused on collecting and passing around worthless pieces of paper that give you access to a better job (read: higher income).

In my years in Thailand, I have been fortunate to meet some exceptions. But that's all they are... Exceptions!

[Som wat]

Learning mai sanook. Think too mutt mai dee. Len Fatebuk deekwa.