Cabinet Approves Bt786 Million For Hiring Teachers

[george]

Cabinet approves Bt786 million for hiring teachers

BANGKOK: -- The caretaker Cabinet Tuesday approved Bt786.4 million for hiring 8,180 temporary teachers for 12 months, Deputy Government Spokeswoman Sansanee Nakpong said.

She said the 8,180 teaches would be hired on temporary basis at the salary of Bt7,630 per month for 12 months.

The teachers would be hired by the Office of the Basic Education Commission.

The temporary teachers will be hired to tackle the teacher shortage following early retirement programme.

--The Nation 2006-09-05

[cclub75]

Oh my... 7630 THB salary for a teacher...

It's obvious now : they have a real problem with education...

Even a waitress can earn more...

[katnip]

Oh my... 7630 THB salary for a teacher...

Worse than many local teachers are paid in China, I believe.

[PeaceBlondie]

Can a caretaker government pass law? Is this really an authorization that demands the money be spent? Will they really do this?

Yes, they needed to do this; an earlier report in July stated that the teacher population in the govt. schools had been steadily declining for years.

The starting salary is indeed small for a university graduate, but they can eventually work up to 22K and 31K if they behave well.

Let's hope that after these 8,180.3 teachers are hired, that 7,538.6 of them do well enough to be re-hired. And that they are rehired. I worked at a school where one of these first year hires, a local girl straight out of uni with an education degree, was let go after her first year because they didn't have the permanent hiring funds.

When the early retirement program was going on two years ago, the second semester saw the experienced matayom teachers having their workloads increased to 24 classroom hours per week, with class sizes ranging from 32 to 53. Much too hard to know even your best students well enough. These teachers work hard, in hot classes, under difficult conditions.

Thailand's declining birth rates should enable the country to hire more teachers, have smaller class sizes, etc. If Thailand can afford to pay it. If Thailand thinks it's important.

[cclub75]

If Thailand can afford to pay it. If Thailand thinks it's important.

That's the problem.

I really think that they don't want it.

In order to keep the old social structure, Thailand need to keep a large farmer community and people without education to work in cities.

There is obviously a lack of desire to improve the system. Before or under Thaksin's rule.

Look at what happened in France, Russia for instance, when a low class with better education started to arise : revolution.

It's impossible to keep a "feudal" social structure among people with decent and modern education in a open society (AKA = not North Korea).

It's just impossible.

Thailand is still, from a social structure point of view, a country with serfdom and feudalism.

Just after the end of Vietnam war, Thailand had an historic opportunity to become a real power. All the region was a mess because of years of war. But Thailand was intact, and had powerfull allies (USA) with large pocket.

Instead, they missed this opportunity. They made the choice of status quo.

Today, the consequences of it are clearly visible.

[katnip]

I have not been in Thailand long, but I have been teaching for a few decades, and in Asia for about 8 years, and - very sadly - the above comments seem to make sense. Too much sense.

The situation for teachers here is lamentable. The situation for students is ludicrous, as well.

Are there not any approachable & *prominent* members of the elite who care about this ?

Edited September 5, 2006 by katnip

[Scott]

Someone posted something about a waitress making more--well, ah, those ladies really aren't waitresses and they offer more than drinks and food! Most service staff are very poorly paid.

The problem of education and social status and status quo in Thailand is quite complicated and in for some real shocks. The problem is that there is a huge decline in the birth rate (really quite drastic). That usually means problems for schools as they will have too few students and will have to merge with other schools--it doesn't mean an improvement in education. This means things like 1 teacher with a handful of kids in a village, but teaching grades 1 to 6 in the same room.

The poor Northern pool of laborers is quickly beginning to dry up, thus the need for foreign workers (mostly illegal), which will have an effect on the social structure of the country.

[PeaceBlondie]

Farang teachers, who are illegal due to unworkable Thai laws and employers, only do a tiny fraction of the teaching in Thailand, mostly English. The native Thais are just not being hired in sufficient numbers now to teach the students who are in the govt. schools now. Even the teaching of English to students is done about 80% by Thai teachers with education degrees, and maybe 80% of their teaching is in the Thai language.

My rough guess is that the best Thai students do not become teachers. The faculty of education does not get the best uni students, usually.

[OldAsiaHand]

.....My rough guess is that the best Thai students do not become teachers. The faculty of education does not get the best uni students, usually.

And that would also be true without the slightest doubt in the US or the UK or anywhere else I have ever heard of.

The problem in Thailand goes well beyond capable people not wanting to teach. It is a matter of a general lack of interest in and respect for education.

One may not respect education in the US as a cultural value, but at the very least, it is generally respected as the key to status and income through social and economic mobility. That's simply not true in Thailand. There is no social mobility at all here. Neither education nor anything else brings you staus or income. This is a feudal country where you are either born with status and income or you're not. It's not something you can earn, particularly because those at the top of the structure now aren't going to allow you to.

Yes, I know there are a few exceptions. At least I assume there must be, but I don't know a single one.

[cclub75]

Someone posted something about a waitress making more--well, ah, those ladies really aren't waitresses and they offer more than drinks and food! Most service staff are very poorly paid.

I got your point : but i was really speaking about... waitresses. I mean real. 6000 THB for a full time at 8 Noddles (fast food chain in Lotus) for instance (plus tips).

In our factory : a driver/messenger is paid 7200 THB... etc.

So a teacher at 7630 THB, I continue to think that something is awfully wrong...

Unless, you think (some do) that thai teachers are so useless (not to say, completly stupid) that they don't deserve a high salary.

[Plus]

I've seen ads in Bangkok Post for teachers with Ph.D for a grand sum of 11 thousand per month, for Chulalongkorn university. Or maybe 11k was for Doctorate degree and 16k for Ph.D.

[kmart]

Reminds me of that old Pink Floyd song. "We don't need no education,..." blah blah.

For Thailand to remain competitive in this region its going to take more than a conveyor-belt stream of brainwashed nationalistic morons manning the economic pumps, so to speak. . Despite all the promises of every government that has ever taken the reins here in the 12 or so years I've been involved in this country; Education and its reform has always been at the bottom of any annual budget. Usually well behind the military spending necessary to upkeep scores of Generals in black label anyway.

Its about time Thailand got serious about educating its youth. Nepotism; cronyism; cheating; etc is really starting to catch up with place now; and income disparity is making its presence felt with the surge in fuel and domestic goods prices.

[bazmlb]

Cabinet approves Bt786 million for hiring teachers

BANGKOK: -- The caretaker Cabinet Tuesday approved Bt786.4 million for hiring 8,180 temporary teachers for 12 months, Deputy Government Spokeswoman Sansanee Nakpong said.

She said the 8,180 teaches would be hired on temporary basis at the salary of Bt7,630 per month for 12 months.

The teachers would be hired by the Office of the Basic Education Commission.

The temporary teachers will be hired to tackle the teacher shortage following early retirement programme.

--The Nation 2006-09-05

They do say Temporary teachers, not full time so they may not be working everyday, they may have to just fill in certain classes?

[veteran]

Five years ago my s. was 6000 bht. as an e-teacher in rual a school (isan). TIT:

[richard10365]

Cabinet approves Bt786 million for hiring teachers

BANGKOK: -- The caretaker Cabinet Tuesday approved Bt786.4 million for hiring 8,180 temporary teachers for 12 months, Deputy Government Spokeswoman Sansanee Nakpong said.

She said the 8,180 teaches would be hired on temporary basis at the salary of Bt7,630 per month for 12 months.

The teachers would be hired by the Office of the Basic Education Commission.

The temporary teachers will be hired to tackle the teacher shortage following early retirement programme.

--The Nation 2006-09-05

I hope these new teachers can do math better than the caretaker Cabinet.

Unless I did my math wrong (which is definitly possible), 8,180 temporary teachers for 12 months at the salary of Bt7,630 per month = THB 748,960,800.00.

THB 786,400,000.00 - THB 748,960,800.00. = THB 37,439,200.00.

Who gets the extra 37+ million baht?

Can a smart person check these figures again just in case I made a mistake?

[PeaceBlondie]

That's not even a shortfall of 5%. Administrative costs are far, far higher than that. Before you know it - after you're talking about trillions of baht - you're talking about real money.

I get the impression that things like an educational system don't change quickly. Didn't it take the MoE five years of "educational reform" just to rearrange its own desks?

The experienced, degreed Thai teachers of English with whom I worked in a northern province, with over 15 years' experience, made from 19K to 31K per month.

"Temporary" would be full-time at those wages. That's roughly the standard salary for a new uni graduate to become a Thai teacher.

But, wait a second: are there 8,129.8 Thai teachers about to graduate with degrees in education? Did they check the supply pipeline, or is this just a pipe dream on waccky tobaccky? And if it never happens, will anybody bother to mention it failed, or was just a thought in passing?

[Artisi]

This is thailand where it seems most policy decisions are made by people on waccky tobaccky.

[OldAsiaHand]

Worse, they're people who are largely the product of the same non-education system we've all been talking about here. In my experience, you can usually find two common characteristics in all these Thai policy makers. They're dumb and they're smug.

[kmart]

Worse, they're people who are largely the product of the same non-education system we've all been talking about here. In my experience, you can usually find two common characteristics in all these Thai policy makers. They're dumb and they're smug.

True. They don't get ahead here on merit or brains here either.

[PeaceBlondie]

But do we think that Thaksin's cabinet is a product of government Thai schools? I think not. Most of them went to the best international schools, or schools abroad. They should know full well when they're lying through their teeth.

Oh, hello Mr. Dr. Khun Lt. Col Shinawatra, sawadee khrap khun! I wasn't speaking of you, kind sir. So, how was it, getting a doctorate in Texas? Boy howdy, sure is hot here.

If I had a Blackberry or a tooth fairy, I'd make some notes for four months and twelve months from now, to check how many got hired, and how many get rehired.