More Than 500 Schools Are Recognized As Dream Schools

[Jai Dee]

More than 500 schools are recognized as dream schools

Five hundred and fifty-seven schools in 30 provinces have met criteria set under the one district-one dream school project.

Piyabut Chonwijarn (ปิยะบุตร ชลวิจารณ์), assistant to the Education minister, said the Basic Education Commission has assessed the ability of those schools in developing their teaching and learning by using information technology as a tool to decide if they should be recognized as dream schools.

Mr. Piyabut said the project aims to create intellectuals who have analytical mind and who are also computer literate.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 12 June 2006

[sriracha john]

under the one district-one dream school project.

I'll leave others to comment regarding the "dream school" portion...

the possibilities are endless...

BUT....I'm just surprised they slipped in yet another "One Tambon-One Whatever" project in on us without any prior notification... sneaky devils...

[simon43]

Thailand . . . the hub of dreaming . . .

[Thaising]

It has been an on-off proposition without actions. It’s dream I could only think off.

[Galong]

Dream? The school system seems to be more of a nightmare right now.

Let's all hope that they can find teachers who can actually speak English with this new scheme. Basically, the English language skills in Thailand are very poor.

[Thaising]

Dream? The school system seems to be more of a nightmare right now.

Let's all hope that they can find teachers who can actually speak English with this new scheme. Basically, the English language skills in Thailand are very poor.

They can have all the hardware, but the problem are the softwares.

[isaanbrit]

Let's all hope that they can find teachers who can actually speak English with this new scheme. Basically, the English language skills in Thailand are very poor.

I worked with students from over 250m schools in the last two years. I come from a top private school in the UK and most studnts I meet now from the top half of the schools I work with can speak better English than I could ever speak french even though I had apparently one of the best french educations in the world.

I think education in Thailand is surprisingly good and the English lanaguage skills of students who have never left Thailand are to be commended. I would like to see Galong or anyone else learn Thai for 5 hours a week back in England and be able to communicate or read with anything near the competence of your average high schools student

[astral]

I worked with students from over 250m schools in the last two years. I come from a top private school in the UK and most studnts I meet now from the top half of the schools I work with can speak better English than I could ever speak french even though I had apparently one of the best french educations in the world.

Judging from this sentence, your own command of the English language seems rather suspect.

[astral]

One dream school per district?

Every school should be a dream school, to give the children a good education and start in life.

[sriracha john]

I worked with students from over 250m schools in the last two years.

Judging from this sentence, your own command of the English language seems rather suspect.

I thought that sentence was ok. I believe "m" is a widely-accepted abbreviation for million.

[veteran]

TIT:

[Galong]

Let's all hope that they can find teachers who can actually speak English with this new scheme. Basically, the English language skills in Thailand are very poor.

I worked with students from over 250m schools in the last two years. I come from a top private school in the UK and most studnts I meet now from the top half of the schools I work with can speak better English than I could ever speak french even though I had apparently one of the best french educations in the world.

I think education in Thailand is surprisingly good and the English lanaguage skills of students who have never left Thailand are to be commended. I would like to see Galong or anyone else learn Thai for 5 hours a week back in England and be able to communicate or read with anything near the competence of your average high schools student

OMG, where to start? Let's see, you say that you worked with students from 250 'm' schools. What does the ‘m’ mean? I hope you're not saying 250 million. I would like to know which 250 million schools would send students to someone with your lack of English grammar proficiency.

For example, "studnts" isn't a word in English. The F in "french" is supposed to be capitalized. And, talk about a run-on sentence.... geez.

Obviously, the best place to learn how to speak French would be France. The best place to learn English would be in England, the US, Australia, etc. Learning from a native language speaker is obviously going to be very beneficial when it comes to pronunciation, syntax, etc. Thai teachers seem to teach their students how to mispronounce English words.

With five hours of Thai per week I'm sure I'd be much better at speaking Thai than Thais with the same limited timeframe would be at speaking English. I know how to study and when I put my mind to it I succeed. I guess that's why I had a 4.0 GPA throughout my schooling.

Many of the Thai teachers who teach English can't actually speak English. They can read and write OK, but their speaking skills are indeed lacking. I also seriously question their ability to understand what they're saying.

This is NOT meant to slam Thailand, but it's based on what I'm seeing and hearing. The US educational system (I'm an American expat so I can say this) is in a nose-dive too. Both nations have a lot of work to do if they want to do business in the global community at an intellectual level.

Sorry isaanbrit, but you really don't seem to have a grasp of reality here. Perhaps you haven't lived here long enough to know about this subject.

[Ijustwannateach]

Ah, the usual Thai propensity for creating new titles, superlatives, and packaging to avoid the awkward truth that the reality is just the same as it ever was.

I'm sure that most of the schools I've worked at in Thailand were the most bestestest, strongest, most reputable, highest-so, most beautiful, funny, happy, fluffy, high-falutin', lovely, joyfully-joyfully, successful, reputable, famous, respected, international, oldest, sweetest, and spongiest of all. But it didn't change the fact that they were often terrible schools with serious, serious problems.

Let's grant that most of the true high-so international schools in Thailand are "good" schools, by whatever standards. That gives you 5-15 good schools, depending on whom you ask. Outside of those, there might be one or two... adequate schools per province, plus another ten for Bangkok added on top. Stretching things, let's say another 120 schools that are at least adequate. So at an estimate, I'd say there are about 140 secondary schools that are from adequate to good in Thailand.

Saying that 500 are "dream" schools is just that- a wish-fulfillment dream.

"Steven"

[Ijustwannateach]

More than 500 schools are recognized as dream schools

Piyabut Chonwijarn (ปิยะบุตร ชลวิจารณ์), assistant to the Education minister, said the Basic Education Commission has assessed the ability of those schools in developing their teaching and learning by using information technology as a tool to decide if they should be recognized as dream schools.

Mr. Piyabut said the project aims to create intellectuals who have analytical mind and who are also computer literate.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 12 June 2006

Translation: These are the schools who have so far participated in the "Dream Computer Kickback" project, which has resulted in a number of new Mercedes for well-deserving officials.

[Galong]

Ah, the usual Thai propensity for creating new titles, superlatives, and packaging to avoid the awkward truth that the reality is just the same as it ever was.

I'm sure that most of the schools I've worked at in Thailand were the most bestestest, strongest, most reputable, highest-so, most beautiful, funny, happy, fluffy, high-falutin', lovely, joyfully-joyfully, successful, reputable, famous, respected, international, oldest, sweetest, and spongiest of all. But it didn't change the fact that they were often terrible schools with serious, serious problems.

Let's grant that most of the true high-so international schools in Thailand are "good" schools, by whatever standards. That gives you 5-15 good schools, depending on whom you ask. Outside of those, there might be one or two... adequate schools per province, plus another ten for Bangkok added on top. Stretching things, let's say another 120 schools that are at least adequate. So at an estimate, I'd say there are about 140 secondary schools that are from adequate to good in Thailand.

Saying that 500 are "dream" schools is just that- a wish-fulfillment dream.

"Steven"

That's a very logical thought pattern and it is very likely to be accurate.

Unfortunately, teachers here don't make much money. This is, of course, a problem in many countries. Any Thai who can speak proper English would make a zillion time more $$ in the tourism trade than in the educational field. I guess with that in mind, we're lucky the kids learn any English.

[dereklev]

I worked with students from over 250m schools in the last two years. I come from a top private school in the UK and most studnts I meet now from the top half of the schools I work with can speak better English than I could ever speak french even though I had apparently one of the best french educations in the world.

Judging from this sentence, your own command of the English language seems rather suspect.

I 2nd that......

Worked with students from over 250 million schools????

[The Dan Sai Kid]

Is it really going to be One Tambon, One School - good for some Tambons, bad for others - what about places like Chiang Mai which have many schools within the same area?

Is there anyway we can see where the dream schools are?

[Johpa]

Mr. Piyabut said the project aims to create intellectuals who have analytical mind and who are also computer literate.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 12 June 2006

Not exactly complimentary tasks. In the US, the public education has swung towards the teaching of computer literacy as opposed to developing analytical minds. But even computer literacy does not include basic old fashioned logic or learning even the rudimentary basics of the simplest programming languages. I mean even Gates and Allen started on a PDP-10 with the likes of:

10 Let A = 1

20 Let B = 2

30 Let C = A+B

40 Print C

Few kids in the US read books for pleasure and the books read in class are selected to give exposure to minority experiences (which is not a bad thing in and of itself, but should not be the primary focus of secondary school literature). And in fact, from my perch here in the US, with the advent of MySpace as the primary social network for kids, they are now becoming self-taught in basic computer skills.

Schools need to focus primarily on analytical thinking and secondarily on computer literacy. My experience teaching in Thailand and hanging out with countless rural teachers is that the teachers need to be more exposed to that state of the art high tech methodology, the Socratic method. It is the pedagogical methodology that not only produced the founders of Microsoft, but also moi. So it is capable of producing a diverse population.

But lets face it, countries like Thailand, that have endemic corruption from top to bottom, especially at the top, do not want its citizenry to be thinking too much. To paraphrase Postman and Weingartner, teaching should, and can be, a subversive activity.

[sriracha john]

I worked with students from over 250m schools in the last two years.

Judging from this sentence, your own command of the English language seems rather suspect.

Worked with students from over 250 million schools????

OK, OK... I'm determined to save isaanbrit.

I will concede that the "m" probably doesn't stand for million, but don't forget that "m" is also a widely-accepted abbreviation for meter....

So in other words, he's worked with students that only came from schools with really, really long hallways.

[Pond Life]

The best place to learn English would be in England, the US, Australia, etc.

Since when did the Yanks speak English ?

[PeaceBlondie]

More than 500 schools are recognized as dream schools

Five hundred and fifty-seven schools in 30 provinces have met criteria set under the one district-one dream school project.

Piyabut Chonwijarn (ปิยะบุตร ชลวิจารณ์), assistant to the Education minister, said the Basic Education Commission has assessed the ability of those schools in developing their teaching and learning by using information technology as a tool to decide if they should be recognized as dream schools.

Mr. Piyabut said the project aims to create intellectuals who have analytical mind and who are also computer literate.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 12 June 2006

My usual warning: Beware! This is a Thai government statement, and a Thai statistic.

What does this actually mean? Have they named the 557 schools. What were the criteria? What subjects? What tests were used that actually measure something with bad questions and three impossibly correct wrong answers?

We're not just talking English here; it's all the subjects. Well, maybe it's just Buddhism or Thai traditional music.

Here's a clue: the govt. has assessed...these schools...by using IT as a tool to decide. Information technazaschamology? They used a computer to measure quality and ability and development? I worked with Thai teachers, twenty years' experience, who had no idea how to use Excel spreadsheets, but guess which totally mis-programmed Thai program they had to use to enter the most meaningless measures of inferior performance? And this, probably, in a school that's on the list of 537 dream schemes. I had a Dreamsicle there, and a dream about a scheme for a theme about Jim Beam, but it's a joke.

One tampon, one product. One district, one wet dream.

And speaking of big numbers like 250,000,000,000 - what ever happened to those 25,000 nifty new computers they were going to install in Thai schools, using vo-tech students to assemble?

[penzman]

I remember that program was put on hold. One of them probably got a glimpse of khun "The Wolfe" Jaruwan 's fangs.

[sriracha john]

I had a Dreamsicle there, and a dream about a scheme for a theme about Jim Beam, but it's a joke.

One tampon, one product. One district, one wet dream.

I liked that bit...

And speaking of big numbers like 250,000,000,000 - what ever happened to those 25,000 nifty new computers they were going to install in Thai schools, using vo-tech students to assemble?

They're waiting on the 100,000 foreign teachers (One Tambon-One Hundred Expats Project) to come and show the vocational students how to do it first.

The Elite Card program is paying for it, so after the millionth card is sold, it will all be up and running.

Edited June 12, 2006 by sriracha john

[ovenman]

But lets face it, countries like Thailand, that have endemic corruption from top to bottom, especially at the top, do not want its citizenry to be thinking too much.

That's exactly why I've never taken any Thai government proclamation of "now we're going to overhaul the education system" very seriously.

[sriracha john]

I remember that program was put on hold. One of them probably got a glimpse of khun "The Wolfe" Jaruwan 's fangs.

With the deadlocked elections, she's been freed to roam about the countryside looking for anything that smells of lamb:

"come on .... get ya some of this"

[Thaising]

I remember that program was put on hold. One of them probably got a glimpse of khun "The Wolfe" Jaruwan 's fangs.

With the deadlocked elections, she's been freed to roam about the countryside looking for anything that smells of lamb:

"come on .... get ya some of this"

Well at least she was not a paper tigress that will make sure and see through that “M” $$$$$$$$$$$ did not go into the pocket of the officials who proposed the ideas.

Edited June 13, 2006 by Thaising

[chownah]

Even though this news is probably meaningless at least the mention of improving education will bring this vital topic to mind. If it pops up often enough perhaps some good will eventually come. I think that the educational system is slowly getting better in Thailand. To think that any educational system anywhere in the world can be tranformed overnite is a misconception. Educational attitudes are deeply engrained cultural traits (as are farming attitudes) and will only change very very slowly....to change the basic methods of an educational system requires changing the attitudes of a majority of the members of the culture it serves.

Chownah

[sriracha john]

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whats new, its the same every year

11 total posts, 11 "TIT"....

Your extremely valuable and poignant contributions to Thaivisa is very much appreciated...

Look forward to many more of your tremendously insightful thoughts...

[lingling]

11 total posts, 11 "TIT"....

Your extremely valuable and poignant contributions to Thaivisa is very much appreciated...

Look forward to many more of your tremendously insightful thoughts...

..?

[tuky]

More than 500 schools are recognized as dream schools

Five hundred and fifty-seven schools in 30 provinces have met criteria set under the one district-one dream school project.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 12 June 2006

Perhaps the translation is poor.

It could be read as 500 odd schools have met the criteria to join a "Dream school" project whatever that may be. I somehow have trouble believing they would seek to pick one school in each province to put it above the rest. Surely the real aim would be to have every school perform its best.