School students have low literacy rate in Thailand

BANGKOK, 29 October 2014 (NNT) – The Office of Basic Education Commission (OBEC) is aiming to improve the literacy rate in Thailand, as 1 in every 3 students in third grade have difficulty reading and writing.

According to OBEC, the recent survey by the Office of Primary Education found that out of 600,000 3rd grade students across Thailand, 35,000 of them or 5 percent, can’t read or write at all.

200,000 others or 1 in every 3 students are not able to read or write well, which is a rather worrying figure for OBEC. Another survey is expected to be taken to help verify this data. Experts would be invited to brainstorm and develop a plan that would solve this problem.

Those responsible for education in local areas would then be asked to attend a seminar to learn how to organize curriculum in a way that enable students to read and write well. OBEC will begin its plan next month, but it will not be fully implemented until next year.


-- NNT 2014-10-29

"OBEC will begin its plan next month, but it will not be fully implemented until next year."

What's the rush?

Wait for another decade,

Mai ben rai, they've been illiterate for many years now, nobody has done anything to remedy this.

A few more illiterate coming out, won't hurt.

I love Thailand...............

How about introducing spaces and punctuation in the written language as a start. No wonder Thais don't enjoy reading whenit'sallwrittenlikethisIwouldgetaheadacheforsure.

Edited October 29, 201411 yr by Zumteufel

The office of what? How many of these burracratic monstrsities are there? I've never even heard of this one. There's the MOE the TCT and now this one. Maybe they should throw in a couple more comities or administrations of this or that. And they wonder why nothing ever gets solved.

But they get high marks for copying from each other, stealing/obtaining the test's papers

and plagiarizing from know work, life is good when you have money and Google,

who need to study?

If they concentrated more on the need to know stuff instead drum banging and marching around the school yard for hours, things MAY improve

And you're wondering why? When 75% of classes (time in school) is dedicated to Buddhism?

"literacy" please, could you translate in Thai....

Did anyone propose to accept thump prints to cash in bank cheques yet? I mean just to provide happiness to future generations

Brainstorm and develop a plan? WHY DON'T THEY JUST START TEACHING THEM?!?

How about introducing spaces and punctuation in the written language as a start. No wonder Thais don't enjoy reading whenit'sallwrittenlikethisIwouldgetaheadacheforsure.

Unfortunately, it's more than just that. I am amazed when I see just how slowly very intelligent Thais read their own language. They need to standardize and probably convert the written language to Latin letters, like Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines did. I realize that there is a lot of culture in sticking with the Thai characters, but when it is slowing down your entire country, it's time to move on.

1. Staff the education departments with educated and experienced administrators educated abroad. There are multiple departments at the top (ministry of education and ministry of interior) and also at the provincial level to be restaffed.

2. Stricter standards for the hiring of teachers.

3. Allow students to fail and have to make up the class if they cannot pass.

4. Better learning material.

5. Redevelopment of teaching procedures and government standards.

I suppose I could list 100 items but these are the most important in my mind.

How about introducing spaces and punctuation in the written language as a start. No wonder Thais don't enjoy reading whenit'sallwrittenlikethisIwouldgetaheadacheforsure.

actually it is quite easy reading Thai without spaces between words. Words can't end with certain letters for instance so it shows it is the start of a new word. For practice i read all of the Harry Potter books in Thai with no problem, i would agree though that commas would help. I taught my son to read English before he could read Thai which has given him some problems now that he is learning to read Thai as the logic is different but they start by learning individual words. They appear to learn by rote though without knowing the basics of why a certain word must have a certain tone which is given by its spelling ( which is why you can't learn Thai properly if you can't read it ) since the children already know the correct tone i presume this is left out for later.

"OBEC will begin its plan next month, but it will not be fully implemented until next year."

What's the rush?

Wait for another decade,

Mai ben rai, they've been illiterate for many years now, nobody has done anything to remedy this.

A few more illiterate coming out, won't hurt.

I love Thailand...............

My sentiments exactly, why worry about it now, nobody cares

How about introducing spaces and punctuation in the written language as a start. No wonder Thais don't enjoy reading whenit'sallwrittenlikethisIwouldgetaheadacheforsure.

Well, if you could read Thai fluently, you would know there are markers in the words that are just as clear to an experienced reader as spaces and punctuation.

I think the numbers they quoted are quite generous. My wife teaches P3 students and she says nearly 1/2 can't read or are very poor readers.

..unfortunately...it is not only in this one age group....

How about introducing spaces and punctuation in the written language as a start. No wonder Thais don't enjoy reading whenit'sallwrittenlikethisIwouldgetaheadacheforsure.

Right on ! the only language in the world, I believe, that has no spaces between the words. Theon lythin gtow orr yabo utis willt heyge tth espa ce sint heri ghtp laces

How about introducing spaces and punctuation in the written language as a start. No wonder Thais don't enjoy reading whenit'sallwrittenlikethisIwouldgetaheadacheforsure.

Unfortunately, it's more than just that. I am amazed when I see just how slowly very intelligent Thais read their own language. They need to standardize and probably convert the written language to Latin letters, like Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines did. I realize that there is a lot of culture in sticking with the Thai characters, but when it is slowing down your entire country, it's time to move on.

One truly amazing thing I have noticed is that if you hand a thai person a telephone directory and ask them to find a certain name and number, they start reading down page one, then page two, and it could take days to find out what we incredibly smart farangs can find in a matter of seconds Yet they all believe they are far ahead in intellect !

Education Reform in Thailand officially started in 1997. There are excellent education models in Asia. I would recommend outside help in the brainstorming.

How about introducing spaces and punctuation in the written language as a start. No wonder Thais don't enjoy reading whenit'sallwrittenlikethisIwouldgetaheadacheforsure.

Right on ! the only language in the world, I believe, that has no spaces between the words. Theon lythin gtow orr yabo utis willt heyge tth espa ce sint heri ghtp laces

Its amazing how easy it is to read both those sentences - without spaces and incorrect spaces.

Thai people read the same way.

Thai uses a space where we out a period.

Separating words is by context.

It was no problem reading the sentence with no spaces. Incorrect spaces was a little more difficult.

And you're wondering why? When 75% of classes (time in school) is dedicated to Buddhism?

I wouldn't call what is taught and practiced here "Buddhism". Perhaps Thai superstition with a Buddha candy wrapper would be more apt.

How about introducing spaces and punctuation in the written language as a start. No wonder Thais don't enjoy reading whenit'sallwrittenlikethisIwouldgetaheadacheforsure.

Unfortunately, it's more than just that. I am amazed when I see just how slowly very intelligent Thais read their own language. They need to standardize and probably convert the written language to Latin letters, like Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines did. I realize that there is a lot of culture in sticking with the Thai characters, but when it is slowing down your entire country, it's time to move on.

My Lord, you guys are joking, right??

You actually think the script makes a difference?

Incidentally, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean don't separate words either (they use commas, but Thai uses the space like a comma). You can look at the example links from wikipedia below.

If you're joking, then they are cute comments. If you're not joking, then I'll guess that you've had trouble reading Thai, and decided to blame the language for being difficult. "I can't read Thai very well, so there must be something inferior about the language."

If there's a problem with literacy, it's not got anything to do with how the language is written.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A8%E3%82%B9%E3%83%8E%E3%82%BB%E3%83%B3%E3%83%88%E3%83%AA%E3%82%BA%E3%83%A0

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B0%91%E6%97%8F%E5%84%AA%E8%B6%8A%E6%84%9F

http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%9E%90%EB%AC%B8%ED%99%94%EC%A4%91%EC%8B%AC%EC%A3%BC%EC%9D%98

How about introducing spaces and punctuation in the written language as a start. No wonder Thais don't enjoy reading whenit'sallwrittenlikethisIwouldgetaheadacheforsure.

Right on ! the only language in the world, I believe, that has no spaces between the words. Theon lythin gtow orr yabo utis willt heyge tth espa ce sint heri ghtp laces

Are you joking to point out how ridiculous the original comments is?

Japanese, Chinese, Korean don't use spaces. Burmese, Cambodia, and Lao don't either... I'm bewildered that people would believe that languages are supposed to be like European languages.

Finally something that can explain all that we see every day in Thailand....

Edited October 29, 201411 yr by Andre0720

How about introducing spaces and punctuation in the written language as a start. No wonder Thais don't enjoy reading whenit'sallwrittenlikethisIwouldgetaheadacheforsure.

I agree with you 100% have been try to lean to read thai wright it to but very very hard and I give up but I still go back and try again I will get it one day have seen here with my thai stepdaughter she took 7 go's and try to pass the weighting test for her motor bike

How about introducing spaces and punctuation in the written language as a start. No wonder Thais don't enjoy reading whenit'sallwrittenlikethisIwouldgetaheadacheforsure.

I agree with you 100% have been try to lean to read thai wright it to but very very hard and I give up but I still go back and try again I will get it one day have seen here with my thai stepdaughter she took 7 go's and try to pass the weighting test for her motor bike

More to the point, is anyone surprised ?

I agree with you 100% have been try to lean to read thai wright it to but very very hard and I give up but I still go back and try again I will get it one day have seen here with my thai stepdaughter she took 7 go's and try to pass the weighting test for her motor bike

Yes! Awl langwijiz shud simplifai the raiting sistimz so that it iz eezer for 4in pipl to riid. Gr8 i-d-uh

And my God, the people in Thailand and China and Japan must be absolute GENIUSES to decipher those impossibly hard scripts.

Well, considering that students will be given minimum grades in case they fail, so they can advance to the next grade and to avoid loss of face, this shouldn't come as a surprise.

I love Thailand...............

No you don't. Why do you stay here?