NCPO to reform Thailand with education

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NCPO to reform country with education



BANGKOK, 24 June 2014 (NNT) - The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has announced that it will use education to help reform the country by developing education for equal access.

Permanent Secretary for Education Sutthasri Wongsamarn said the ministry informed the NCPO during their recent meeting that it had reformed the Thai education many times, including the restructuring of the ministry.

The ministry also informed the council of the problems it had faced over the past ten years such as those concerning teachers’ development, shortage of educational personnel and teachers’ debt.

The NCPO asked the ministry to improve the quality of small schools.

Ms Sutthasri added that the ministry would revise the selection criteria of its scholarships with a focus on helping less-fortunate children have an opportunity to study abroad.

The Office of the Education Council also had to play a more active role in educational research and development, she said.


-- NNT 2014-06-24

[dahinni]

that is start

[clockman]

Lets see some transparency on spending! big budget. But where does it go?

[frodo]

If they really want a good start, begin by getting rid of the TCT (Teacher's Council of Thailand). A proven track record of doing nothing. While the idea sounds good, they are highly disorganized and actually benefit nobody, that includes Thai's and foreigners alike.

[Bernard Flint]

Thats going to piss off the elitist,they dont want the normal thai people more educated.That will be a big threat, if they can think more.

[sirchai]

The ministry also informed the council of the problems it had faced over the past ten years such as those concerning teachers’ development, shortage of educational personnel and teachers’ debt.

That's why ALL Thai teachers loved Thaksin so much, as he'd made a new law that none of them in deepest dept had to pay that money back

Those who had "borrowed" four million baht could start over again. Gotta love their white uniforms that makes them look like a bunch of brainless U.S. Army wannabe generals. Pretty much sad that we don't have such "privileges" as teachers in Europe and elsewhere.

All provinces in this country do have their own banks, that look like a palace. But not for foreign teachers.

Thai teacher's development in form of buying a Master's in English will never change.Same woman might have bought a doctorate for 500 K?\

"Shortage of educational personnel?" That doesn't seem to include teachers, or what????

All Thai teachers should wear more and highly decorated Boy Scout uniforms, playing a Scottish blowjob instrument, while marching..

The NCPO asked the ministry to improve the quality of small schools.Do small schools really have a quality? Of what?

How can anybody ask incompetent people to increase the quality of something they don't know anything about it?

Thailand missed the beginning of the 21st century completely.Let's wait another 86 years until they catch up with Mongolia.

The hub of spending the most cash for education, but not knowing who's spending it for what.. -

Edited June 24, 2014 by sirchai

[espinoza]

It will never help the system if you are changing and reforming the bureaucracy, which you have been doing for decades already. Maybe you should get a visionary and tough leader that can see beyond the teachers needs. Maybe start thinking about the purpose of the school system ? Is it to pray to Buddha and the king every day, or is it to make the kids able to do something positive and good in their lives ????

[Mister Fixit]

She says they've reformed Thai education many times - and it still doesn't bl**dy work ...!

[scooterboy]

Sympathies for TallPalm - and pretty much the norm in some schools, I fear....

[Utley]

Noble intentions but as other posters have commented, it has been tried before without success. Perhaps its time the Thais reach beyond their borders for some help reforming their educational system. Choose several countries as models, invite their educational leaders to Thailand and listen to their recommendations; perhaps even entice one of them to stay and take charge. Just a thought.

[Maroon Watcher]

Professional conduct starts with the school

[janpharma]

The ministry also informed the council of the problems it had faced over the past ten years such as those concerning teachers’ development, shortage of educational personnel and teachers’ debt.

That's why ALL Thai teachers loved Thaksin so much, as he'd made a new law that none of them in deepest dept had to pay that money back

Those who had "borrowed" four million baht could start over again. Gotta love their white uniforms that makes them look like a bunch of brainless U.S. Army wannabe generals. Pretty much sad that we don't have such "privileges" as teachers in Europe and elsewhere.

All provinces in this country do have their own banks, that look like a palace. But not for foreign teachers.

Thai teacher's development in form of buying a Master's in English will never change.Same woman might have bought a doctorate for 500 K?\

"Shortage of educational personnel?" That doesn't seem to include teachers, or what????

All Thai teachers should wear more and highly decorated Boy Scout uniforms, playing a Scottish blowjob instrument, while marching..

The NCPO asked the ministry to improve the quality of small schools.Do small schools really have a quality? Of what?

How can anybody ask incompetent people to increase the quality of something they don't know anything about it?

Thailand missed the beginning of the 21st century completely.Let's wait another 86 years until they catch up with Mongolia.

The hub of spending the most cash for education, but not knowing who's spending it for what.. -

The best start would be to erradicate corruption...don't let them "buy" their degree anymore. Besides, make it transparant, our daughter who goes to a school with 6250 students is expected to pay 2 x 3900.-Thb this year as addition for the teachers...Let's count together: 3900x2= 7800, x 6250= .750.000.-THB !!!

to be divided amongst the teachers...When will this end?!!!

[hhiser]

If they can institute productive reforms, then maybe this coup intervention will be worthwhile.

[Daniel Boon]

well - in this juncture of military rule and cause and effect - it is a start ...

[Eric Loh]

Education reform is a long journey and unlikely to see much meaningful reform in 12-18 months NCPO period. When government never last a full term (except one), just highlight the difficulty in planning and implementing reform.

[aripengu]

Move away from the patriotic and feudal type education and you may end up educating children in to mature, independent thinking citizens that are able to work and take responsibility for their mistakes. There's a lot of potential in Thailand, sadly many of those that can deliver honest quality work end up going abroad.

[Scott]

Off-topic posts and replies have been deleted along with racists posts.

[RigPig]

I read there are 2000 schools in Thailand that don't even have electricity.......

[oztaurus]

That old chestnut - education reform!

My gf is a kindergarten teacher of 14 years experience, dedicated to and beloved by her students and their parents. When I hear stories of the skills she had to master during her degree I am impressed, yet put her in a class of 40+ 5 year olds and there is hardly any time to do more than the typical rote teaching we all decry.

As a part of the system and its accepted process she will constantly erase students' work until they can produce one neatly written example of correct size and spacing in their workbook - which is kept at the school and neither the student nor their parents have a chance to observe or review their true progress.

Maths is taught 3+4=7, but never in the same lesson are the students shown that 4+3=7, nor 5+2, 2+5, 6+1, 1+6. Maths is done on the whiteboard, never with objects, playing cards, money or actions.

She also teaches 6-8 of her students in a private class at our home on Saturday mornings. Last week she had a new student, the mother indicated that her daughter had a problem with pronunciation - cannot say "ngaw ngoo", replacing it with "naw noo". I noticed that the girl actually couldn't even pronounce "gaw gai" correctly, rendering it as "jaw jai".

My gf tried for 5 minutes to get the girl to hear a hard G and repeat it - with no success. I had the girl take a small sip of water (nowhere near enough to qualify as waterboarding, thank you!), roll it to the back of her tongue and experience making the sound with her tongue in the correct position and her throat closed. After a few minutes practice she had it down pat without the water. Reinforced the lesson 3 times in the following hours and she was able to show off her new skill to a very happy mum.

I am not big-noting myself or saying that west is best - as has been noted many times in these forums, there are a great many western "teachers" here who have no clue about teaching either and many whose language skills are less than stellar. I have no training as a speech pathologist, nor even as a teacher - and no real interest in a career as either. My point is that,as an ordinary guy with a good western education, I was able to see a fundamental problem, devise a creative solution and achieve an outcome which a good Thai teacher did not even have the first idea of how to solve.

Education reform in this country will take generations. First - those who educate our teachers in their university courses need to be changed, then as those students flow into the ranks of new school teachers, those new methods and philosophies will have to survive in the Darwinian jungle of the bureaucracy of Thai education, fighting the forces drawing them back into the old ways. As the students that they teach become accustomed to thinking for themselves and go on to become teachers in their own right, only then will Thailand see true reform take root and spread.

Unfortunately there are few with the vision, the will and the power to see that long term project through to fruition. As a result, we will cotinue to see education spokespeople declare enquiries and reforms, and we will continue to see TV posts deriding the same old same old.

Now I shall climb down fromthis soapbox and thank you for your attention.

[Krataiboy]

Why waste money on yet more reforms when the needs is to recruit, train and properly reward the men and women who help mould future generations? Teachers, not bureaucrats pinning yards of new red tape, produce smart kids.

Right now, the Thai state school system is a lottery, at best, with generally poor teaching standards and predictably dreadful results in terms of equipping youngsters for the world of work, let alone life.

I speak from the experience of having put two Thai stepchildren through the state system, with two more still in the pipeline, and feeling very much that neither the taxpayer nor I have had value for our money.

Money? Yes, I know that under the Thai constitution children are supposed to receive 12 years free education. But in reality most schools, other than those run by temples, charge parents additional fees (and I'm not talking about paying for extra lessons after school, at weekends or during holidays).

One of my pet beefs (being English) is that Thai children are supposed to start learning the world's most widely used language at primary school. But because so few teachers can speak anything other than Thai, most youngsters leave hardly able to read, write or mutter even a few words. Even the posh, fee-paying school my elder daughter attends has an English Program without a single native English teacher.

My seven-year-old daughter, is already able speak, read, write and speak English far better than any of her teachers, including her official English teacher, who is Thai and thinks the plural of child is childs (honest). And now the educational eggheads are blithely talking about all Thai children learning English AND Chinese! The mind boggles.

Like charity,if you want a decent education for your children in Thailand it had better begin at home. Otherwise there won't be much to speak of unless you can afford the stratospheric fees and tea money bribes demanded by one of the half-decent private international schools.

It does not surprise me, from what I know of the state educational system, to learn that Thai children are the dumbest (perhaps dumbed-down would be a fairer description) of just about any in South-East Asia. Their prospects will remain bleak so long as bureaucrats, not quality teachers, rule the academic roost.

[realenglish1]

This is a new thought for Thai schools. Stop teaching them to submit and start teaching them to THINK OUT OF THE BOX. This will help Thailand in the future. Give the students problems that reward them for coming up with innovation rather than following the crowd

[Brian Corrigan]

Ms Sutthasri added that the ministry would revise the selection criteria of its scholarships with a focus on helping less-fortunate children have an opportunity to study abroad.

​Yeah! And pigs will fly. Too much education of the masses is bad for the Thai elite. One thing they don't like is children asking questions.

[sirchai]

The ministry also informed the council of the problems it had faced over the past ten years such as those concerning teachers’ development, shortage of educational personnel and teachers’ debt.

That's why ALL Thai teachers loved Thaksin so much, as he'd made a new law that none of them in deepest dept had to pay that money back

Those who had "borrowed" four million baht could start over again. Gotta love their white uniforms that makes them look like a bunch of brainless U.S. Army wannabe generals. Pretty much sad that we don't have such "privileges" as teachers in Europe and elsewhere.

All provinces in this country do have their own banks, that look like a palace. But not for foreign teachers.

Thai teacher's development in form of buying a Master's in English will never change.Same woman might have bought a doctorate for 500 K?\

"Shortage of educational personnel?" That doesn't seem to include teachers, or what????

All Thai teachers should wear more and highly decorated Boy Scout uniforms, playing a Scottish blowjob instrument, while marching..

The NCPO asked the ministry to improve the quality of small schools.Do small schools really have a quality? Of what?

How can anybody ask incompetent people to increase the quality of something they don't know anything about it?

Thailand missed the beginning of the 21st century completely.Let's wait another 86 years until they catch up with Mongolia.

The hub of spending the most cash for education, but not knowing who's spending it for what.. -

The best start would be to erradicate corruption...don't let them "buy" their degree anymore. Besides, make it transparant, our daughter who goes to a school with 6250 students is expected to pay 2 x 3900.-Thb this year as addition for the teachers...Let's count together: 3900x2= 7800, x 6250= .750.000.-THB !!!

to be divided amongst the teachers...When will this end?!!!

When will this end, seems to be a good question. Please look at your math again, seems you'd forgotten the most important numbers, before.

It's actually 48 million and 750,000 Thai baht.

Enough for about 1,300 Thai English teachers to "buy" a Master's, or Doctorate degree, or some nice houses, cars, etc....

I've never heard that parents pay such an amount of money, it could only be possible if it's an AP program ( advanced program), where they've got 4-6 hours of English/week.

It''s usually 500-800 baht/year for a government school, where they've usually got one, or two hours taught by a foreign teacher.

Let's say, the size of the school would require 20 native English speaking teachers with experience. They could pay them 100 K/month for 12 months a year and would still have 24 million 750,000 baht left.

EP primary schools usually take around 18- 25 K for one term, so I'd reckon to check on, what you're actually paying for.

Back to work now, don't waste the school's resources.

Edited June 25, 2014 by sirchai

[Thighlander]

The ministry also informed the council of the problems it had faced over the past ten years such as those concerning teachers development, shortage of educational personnel and teachers debt.

That's why ALL Thai teachers loved Thaksin so much, as he'd made a new law that none of them in deepest dept had to pay that money back

Those who had "borrowed" four million baht could start over again. Gotta love their white uniforms that makes them look like a bunch of brainless U.S. Army wannabe generals. Pretty much sad that we don't have such "privileges" as teachers in Europe and elsewhere.

All provinces in this country do have their own banks, that look like a palace. But not for foreign teachers.

Thai teacher's development in form of buying a Master's in English will never change.Same woman might have bought a doctorate for 500 K?\

"Shortage of educational personnel?" That doesn't seem to include teachers, or what????

All Thai teachers should wear more and highly decorated Boy Scout uniforms, playing a Scottish blowjob instrument, while marching..

The NCPO asked the ministry to improve the quality of small schools.Do small schools really have a quality? Of what?

How can anybody ask incompetent people to increase the quality of something they don't know anything about it?

Thailand missed the beginning of the 21st century completely.Let's wait another 86 years until they catch up with Mongolia.

The hub of spending the most cash for education, but not knowing who's spending it for what.. -

The best start would be to erradicate corruption...don't let them "buy" their degree anymore. Besides, make it transparant, our daughter who goes to a school with 6250 students is expected to pay 2 x 3900.-Thb this year as addition for the teachers...Let's count together: 3900x2= 7800, x 6250= .750.000.-THB !!!

to be divided amongst the teachers...When will this end?!!!

As they would say in Oakland; "Check your Maff." 7800 x 6250= 48,750,000. That ought to buy some new Mercedes Benzes for the administration.

[belg]

great, so they will be in power for the next 60 years ?

[sirchai]

They've also decided that all Thai English teachers from now on have to pass a TOEIC examination with at least a score of 850 points,as they're not native English speakers.

P.S. Sorry, that's just wishful thinking, but the Thai English teachers at my school have to pass such an examination now.And that's in the middle of nowhere in Isaan.

Edited June 29, 2014 by sirchai

[tagranados]

Move away from the patriotic and feudal type education and you may end up educating children in to mature, independent thinking citizens that are able to work and take responsibility for their mistakes. There's a lot of potential in Thailand, sadly many of those that can deliver honest quality work end up going abroad.

Yes, there is potential in the people here. I know so many amazing, brilliant souls. But, you hit the nail on the head when you used the words "mature", "independent", and "thinking". How can that happen when the adults in charge are often child-like themselves? When I'm teaching, my Thai teacher (again, tons of potential and I love her) is busy posting cat and dog videos on Facebook while I'm trying to get information to the students. I have a ton of adult colleagues and adult students who are sending me Hello Kitty stickers on Line Chat. I quit the cartoon stuff when I was 13 years old. Maybe 14. I had to turn off the notifications because the thing dings all night. I shouldn't have to do that. Then, when the meeting time got changed for something really, really important my Thai teacher just sends me a Line message so I didn't even get it and lost two days of work. These are grown professionals who are sending cartoons 24/7. In the world of me, that is a bit of a disconnect. There are so many other example's that come to mind. While the head teacher is delivering the opening talk to the students every morning, all the other teachers are yawning, rolling their eyes, and tapping their feet. I'm saying they don't have a mature mentality to lead the children with. Maybe it's different at other people's school and jobs, but that is my experience.

[sirchai]

Move away from the patriotic and feudal type education and you may end up educating children in to mature, independent thinking citizens that are able to work and take responsibility for their mistakes. There's a lot of potential in Thailand, sadly many of those that can deliver honest quality work end up going abroad.

Yes, there is potential in the people here. I know so many amazing, brilliant souls. But, you hit the nail on the head when you used the words "mature", "independent", and "thinking". How can that happen when the adults in charge are often child-like themselves? When I'm teaching, my Thai teacher (again, tons of potential and I love her) is busy posting cat and dog videos on Facebook while I'm trying to get information to the students. I have a ton of adult colleagues and adult students who are sending me Hello Kitty stickers on Line Chat. I quit the cartoon stuff when I was 13 years old. Maybe 14. I had to turn off the notifications because the thing dings all night. I shouldn't have to do that. Then, when the meeting time got changed for something really, really important my Thai teacher just sends me a Line message so I didn't even get it and lost two days of work. These are grown professionals who are sending cartoons 24/7. In the world of me, that is a bit of a disconnect. There are so many other example's that come to mind. While the head teacher is delivering the opening talk to the students every morning, all the other teachers are yawning, rolling their eyes, and tapping their feet. I'm saying they don't have a mature mentality to lead the children with. Maybe it's different at other people's school and jobs, but that is my experience.

Your post isn't less irritating than Thai teachers updating their facebook with dogs and cats videos, while you’re trying to get information to the students.

In the world of me is a little bit of disconnect? You’d lost two days of work, because a Thai teacher had sent you a LINE message, you didn't even get? Did you not understand her?

Do you teach English at a school? Just asking, as I do not really get your point. The thread was about an educational reform, your input is exactly about what people are trying to reform.

If your thing “dings” all night, you might have given your username to too many people.

What goes around, comes around. -

[onlycw]

Well, we have had internet trouble (school failed to pay the bills... ). Then there was a stopped up toilet. Moreover, there have been frequent repair requests for classroom equipment like projectors, loudspeakers etc. Each and every time, the excuse I heard was the budget...

There are xx unpaid students working as teachers.

While the OTPC policy was killed, the "smart classroom" initiative won't work when schools won't even keep projectors and loudspeakers operable

TBH, my school doesn't have curricula. When I raised this issue, I was referred to some book. Enough said. It's hopeless.

In my program, parents have to pay >17,000 Baht. But maintaining the teachers' PCs in just 6 classrooms is too much, with xx IT specialist son the payroll?!? You bet!

Maybe they need to pay us 10 k more and we bring in our own projectors and speakers, complete with some SLA?

I would love to see total TRANSPARENCY regarding a government school's finances and the "budget" preventing them from having unusable toilets cleaned.

Edited June 30, 2014 by onlycw

[onlycw]

Yeah - who got to go to Canada and the USA? A: not any young teachers, but ... (hint: the fat cats get all the cream. Folks near retirement age who weren't teaching English due to being HoD etc. hogged the places, repeatedly).

Reminds me of Wai Kru Day this year. they brought orphans on stage who wept pitifully into microphones. But the money that was collected wasn't for those orphans, was it?!? I asked and was told "no" - can't understand Thai...