Thai students close to bottom of 14-country IT skills ranking

[Lite Beer]

INTERNATIONAL COMPUTER AND INFORMATION LITERACY STUDY
Thai students close to bottom of 14-country IT skills ranking
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The information-technology skills of Thai eighth-graders are near the bottom of a new list ranking 14 countries.

Chaiwut Lertwanasiriwan, of the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology (IPST), said one of the key reasons for the low score - in which 13th-placed Thailand scored 373 points and last-placed Turkey 361 - was the focus on memorisation of textbooks rather than emphasising application and practicality like the countries at the top of the list.

Chaiwut said grouping IT in a subject titled "basic career teachings and technology orientation" meant that analytical thinking crucially associated with IT teaching was absent.

He said teachers, who were governed by corresponding curricula, did not teach students how to apply IT knowledge in their daily life or other lines of learning.

IPST recently took part in the International Computer and Information Literacy Study that led to the creation of the list.

The Czech Republic topped the list with 553 points while Chile was ranked 12th with 487 points.

South Korea, the only Asian country that took part in the event apart from Thailand, earned 536 points to finish fourth.

Chaiwut said various relevant indices were essential in determining a country's score such as Internet availability, broadband penetration, the number of mobile-phone users, and the proportion of homes with personal computers.

He said this was evident in students from demonstration schools under university supervision in Thailand. Students from these schools, who often come from well-to-do families, earned 518 points in a separate category on individual types of schools compared with the 330 points scored by schools in urban areas.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Thai-students-close-to-bottom-of-14-country-IT-ski-30248328.html

-- The Nation 2014-11-22

[NeverSure]

I'm shocked, I tell ya. Shocked.

Heck, in some Western countries, grade school kids are writing code.

[SoilSpoil]

Most Thai kids have access to internet and have computers or mobile devices. They spend hours per day using them. Even the relative poor have fancier mobile devices than I have. The problem is that these machines are used for entertainment purposes only, which is like a new opiate for the masses. It's, in my opinion, the responsibility of the parents and schools together to not only use applications but also to create them. Even a simple spreadsheet with your school marks would do. Or a simple web blog with your holiday pictures. Activate those brain synapses you lazy rascals!

[HeijoshinCool]

"We beat Turkey! We beat Turkey! We beat Turkey!"

[NeverSure]

This comes back to the whole idea of Thais lacking critical thinking. They are learning things by rote if they learn them at all.

It takes a different kind of thinking just to become a power user of a computer, much less to learn to write code or, God help us, learn enough about electronics to design a motherboard which is better than.

I was going to write that Thais are 50 years behind but they are much farther than that behind. 50 years ago the computer was making its way into Western businesses causing such things as Visa and Mastercard to become possible. Checks were being MICR encoded so that reader-sorters could first route them to the correct bank and then to the correct branch and then sort them by account number.

Thais were still planting rice and thatching roofs.

[Scott]

We have been mandated to teach critical thinking. We actually have to give them a score in one of the subjects on critical thinking.

The Administration, however, has no idea what exactly critical thinking is.

Why am I not surprised?

[kurnell]

The most important thing here is that Thais believe they are the smartest race on the planet

[thesetat2013]

I simply find it hard to believe that Thailand did not reach number one... Even if that was #1 worst! Something must be wrong with this survey.

On a serious note! Thais kids spend more time on their phone and online chatting FB or playing games. They stay up to late hours in the night doing this.

It is no wonder they can not apply IT to their daily lives when their main concern has nothing to do with learning.

Try to get a kid to multi-task! Almost an impossible feat.

Students academic level is at its lowest in Thailand. But try to tell them their is a better way and you are the crazy person with the crazy idea.

[Mr Somtam]

Most Thai kids have access to internet and have computers or mobile devices. They spend hours per day using them. Even the relative poor have fancier mobile devices than I have. The problem is that these machines are used for entertainment purposes only, which is like a new opiate for the masses. It's, in my opinion, the responsibility of the parents and schools together to not only use applications but also to create them. Even a simple spreadsheet with your school marks would do. Or a simple web blog with your holiday pictures. Activate those brain synapses you lazy rascals!

Everything is in Thai: they "play" Facebook in Thai, they Google in Thai, their computer homework is in Thai.

I don't know of any programming language or web app that uses Thai...

Writing code, huh huh, need English skills first!

[NeverSure]

The most important thing here is that Thais believe they are the smartest race on the planet

Do they ever wonder why everything they have that is "modern" was developed by someone else?

From where do they think the whole idea of a telephone much less a cell phone or smartphone came from? How about their computer? Don't they stop to think (oops, my bad) about why they didn't invent the airplane or the jet engine or avionics?

When I was young my culture taught me to aspire to be like the people who did these things. My culture taught me to dig into things and learn how they worked. The tools were there for me to learn.

I give up.

[NongKhaiKid]

Most Thai kids have access to internet and have computers or mobile devices. They spend hours per day using them. Even the relative poor have fancier mobile devices than I have. The problem is that these machines are used for entertainment purposes only, which is like a new opiate for the masses. It's, in my opinion, the responsibility of the parents and schools together to not only use applications but also to create them. Even a simple spreadsheet with your school marks would do. Or a simple web blog with your holiday pictures. Activate those brain synapses you lazy rascals!

Everything is in Thai: they "play" Facebook in Thai, they Google in Thai, their computer homework is in Thai.

I don't know of any programming language or web app that uses Thai...

Writing code, huh huh, need English skills first!

Use of the word ' play ' is impotant here. During my time teaching when asking students what they like to do in their free time ' playing computer ' was the most usual answer. Confusion followed when I explained the difference between ' playing ' and ' using ' etc as everything outside of work or full time study appears to be treated as play.

On line study, email, research, games etc all come under the banner of Play.

[MJP]

I don't believe this. My kids are world class players of Subway Surfer on those tablet things.

[jaltsc]

" ...memorisation of textbooks rather than emphasising application and practicality like the countries at the top of the list."

To do otherwise would cause them to critically think, become aware of their surroundings and the society in which they live. That would lead to questioning the existing state of things, including the political and economic hierarchy. In other words, they would have to cease practicing Thainess.

Edited November 22, 2014 by jaltsc

[konying]

Not to worry, Monday's headline " thailand eyeing to be IT hub "

[MJP]

If anyone's interested, here's the link to the report . . .

http://www.imd.org/uupload/imd.website/wcc/NewTalentReport/IMD_World_Talent_Report_2014bis.pdf

[ezzra]

This is not fair to rank Thailand under these criteria, if you had ranking for shoddy half ass workmanship,

copying and not taking responsibility to anything you do, Thailand will be No. 1 with a bullet...

Edited November 22, 2014 by ezzra

[maewang99]

I used to cringe at the 6 letter 'n word'. My grandpop used it often, not that I didn't love my grandpop. Now that word cannot bother me at all, when used in the same sense my grandpop used it. Two other English words now make me cringe more than the n word ever did. Those words are 'student' and 'teacher'. Those two words make every swear word and every other nasty word in the English language silly. Student? Teacher? Simply by how those word are so horridly abused, locally. It involves millions of children and adults of whom we live and see everyday. The consequences are very real.

Edited November 22, 2014 by maewang99

[scorecard]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Most Thai kids have access to internet and have computers or mobile devices. They spend hours per day using them. Even the relative poor have fancier mobile devices than I have. The problem is that these machines are used for entertainment purposes only, which is like a new opiate for the masses. It's, in my opinion, the responsibility of the parents and schools together to not only use applications but also to create them. Even a simple spreadsheet with your school marks would do. Or a simple web blog with your holiday pictures. Activate those brain synapses you lazy rascals!

Everything is in Thai: they "play" Facebook in Thai, they Google in Thai, their computer homework is in Thai.

I don't know of any programming language or web app that uses Thai...

Writing code, huh huh, need English skills first!

Well my granddaughter is 9, goes to a good bilingual school which does focus on critical thinking skills and discussion skills and does teach usage of Word, PP, and Excel. She can easily write e-mails (English and Thai, she make PP slides, make simple Excel tables with simple sort set-up.

But her cousins, they all go to local big gov't. schools, are the exact opposite.

[Scott]

The social structure of the country, which is strongly reinforced by the education system, stresses conformity and subservience. These are the antithesis of creativity. Children are not permitted to explore their environment freely. Nearly all activities are supervised. I learned a whole lot about physics and biology when I fell out of a tree and broke my arm. I have never seen a Thai child even climb a tree.

Many skills are taught, but critical thinking is learned.

[Lupatria]

Most Thai kids have access to internet and have computers or mobile devices. They spend hours per day using them. Even the relative poor have fancier mobile devices than I have. The problem is that these machines are used for entertainment purposes only, which is like a new opiate for the masses. It's, in my opinion, the responsibility of the parents and schools together to not only use applications but also to create them. Even a simple spreadsheet with your school marks would do. Or a simple web blog with your holiday pictures. Activate those brain synapses you lazy rascals!

the responsibility of the parents and schools together…

Do the test yourself. Show the picture below to a Thai student and ask him/her what they think about it.

[Tatsujin]

I simply find it hard to believe that Thailand did not reach number one... Even if that was #1 worst! Something must be wrong with this survey.

On a serious note! Thais kids spend more time on their phone and online chatting FB or playing games. They stay up to late hours in the night doing this.

It is no wonder they can not apply IT to their daily lives when their main concern has nothing to do with learning.

Try to get a kid to multi-task! Almost an impossible feat.

Students academic level is at its lowest in Thailand. But try to tell them their is a better way and you are the crazy person with the crazy idea.

Forget multi-tasking, I'd be happy if they could complete ONE task correctly other than knowing how to use the Group Chat feature on whatever the latest chat app is or get their heads out of Facebook long enough to actually do ANY work at all.

[yellowboat]

One of the problems is that there is not much love for Linux in the Kingdom. Linux drives Google, the Internet and most servers. There are no aspirations to learn something knew. Thailand never goes looking for solutions. Solutions come looking in Thailand.

[janpoo]

IT is in english, isn't it?????? So what you expect. This country will never be able to speak and understand the English languaga. WE'RE THAI WHY SHPOULD WE!!!!!

[jaltsc]

Most Thai kids have access to internet and have computers or mobile devices. They spend hours per day using them. Even the relative poor have fancier mobile devices than I have. The problem is that these machines are used for entertainment purposes only, which is like a new opiate for the masses. It's, in my opinion, the responsibility of the parents and schools together to not only use applications but also to create them. Even a simple spreadsheet with your school marks would do. Or a simple web blog with your holiday pictures. Activate those brain synapses you lazy rascals!

Ha Ha Ha...Using "parents", "schools" and "responsibility" in the same sentence referring to Thailand. Perhaps you are dabbling with the opiates.

[BMF1960]

Not to worry, Monday's headline " thailand eyeing to be IT hub "

This is so on the money. I mean, why let fact get in the way of a good story?

[PaulHamon]

I was writing code in primary school and that was just LOGO

http://logo.codeplex.com/

But that was, let me see... I was eleven or twelve. So back in 83/84 ish.

Paul

[djjamie]

If you gauged their IT skills on how busy the internet gaming shops are in Khon Kaen, Thailand would be #1 in the word.

[JOC]

This ranking will keep the feudal masters happy!! "The general in charge and the peasants stupid as ever"

What can possibly go wrong??

[KuhnPaen]

Wait. I thought Thailand was at the top of the "World Talent" list.

Oh, it's so confusing!!!

Are they the dumbest people on the planet or the smartest?

Bet you there will be a news story next week about the Thais being the world's most honest

[soalbundy]

Some of them are good. Some years ago my firm mistakenly delivered an upgraded air-con system for our cars being built in Thailand whose production date wasn't meant to have. They built the air-con into the car but the car refused to start as the cars inbuilt computer didn't recognize the air-con unit. Panic back in Germany when they considered the cost of flying in a thousand air-con units. Our electronics department was asked if it was possible to reprogram the on board computer to accept the air-con units, the answer,negative,it was impossible. My boss sent an E-mail to Thailand to this effect only to receive the answer, ''No problem,we have already reprogrammed the computers,everything working fine'' which caused some very red faces on our side.