SURVEY: The plan to slash school hours--Good or Bad?

[Scott]

The Thai government has introduced a pilot project to slash the number of school hours and to introduce more extracurricular activities. In your opinion, do you think this is a good or bad idea?

Please feel free to post a comment.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/851898-pilot-project-set-to-slash-school-hours/

[Praematura]

Thais are so far behind their neighbors in terms of education and the recent declarations from industry executives about how Thai kids are unprepared for the job market makes me wonder why one would make them even less prepared. Instead of cutting hours they should mandate two hours of English for example or even some kind of tradeskill.

[cmiuc]

Chinese students from 8 am to 5 pm.

If they are in the last year of High School, they start at 6.30 am until 10 pm at night in order to prepare them for University.

So decreasing hours is not going to improve their learning... and be prepared to work in other ASEAN countries. Singapore Students learn from 32 hours to 40 hours a week... so while teachers like less hours...it just mean more idle time at the office, and if in an Thai mixed environment... it can drive you crazy!

[timber]

Its not the hours of education it is the quality. It has been shown that changes in the environment strengthen alertness. Change teachers every two or three hours. Everybody in the system is bored. English can be fun. Show videos and teacher goes to sleep. The people running the system don't want to be bothered with what needs to be done. Nobody seems to be serious about education in Thailand. Get people from successful systems to come in and assess the Thai system.

[hugh2121]

I have a 15 year old Thai stepson. He is interested only in games on his smart phone. School work? Nah, can't be bothered. When I go out, nearly all the children I see are doing something with smart phones. Last week he told me he had an English test and he scored 15 out of 20. I asked him to tell me one of the questions but he could not remember even one. Despite having an English person living at home and English lessons at school, his English is appalling. His friends are just the same, don't care about school work under the "no fail" system and think they are clever. Under this system, Thailand be for ever a third world country.

Not only should school hours be increased, there should be less holidays, failure should be failure and children made to study both at school and at home with vast amounts of homework to get them away from computer games.

Can't understand Thai parents either who allow this situation to persist.

[DinoSabanovic]

I have a 15 year old Thai stepson. He is interested only in games on his smart phone. School work? Nah, can't be bothered. When I go out, nearly all the children I see are doing something with smart phones. Last week he told me he had an English test and he scored 15 out of 20. I asked him to tell me one of the questions but he could not remember even one. Despite having an English person living at home and English lessons at school, his English is appalling. His friends are just the same, don't care about school work under the "no fail" system and think they are clever. Under this system, Thailand be for ever a third world country.

Not only should school hours be increased, there should be less holidays, failure should be failure and children made to study both at school and at home with vast amounts of homework to get them away from computer games.

Can't understand Thai parents either who allow this situation to persist.

Do you have any idea how was it only few decades ago in Thailand?

You expect children to be rocket scientists while majority of parents are unable to read or write.

Country needs time to change laws.

This is still normal:

[Irishrogue]

I am very much inclined to agree with Timber regarding the quality of education but would add that parental involvement is an integral part of the process. I have 3 children who attend a catholic school they leave at 7.0am every morning and return around 5.pm and then have homework, even the 3 year old. This is in my opinion a very long day. My wife sits until 10.0pm most evenings helping with their Thai homework and I help with their English and we both help with arithmetic.

I have not done any Euclidian theory for more years than I care to remember but it does come back but how many parents even know what that is?.

I am many times frustrated by their English text books which are incorrect and if the books supposedly necessary to impart learning are incorrect what chance is there. My eldest 12 has come home with ridiculous requests to learn an English "Pop Song" and the Cha, Cha, Cha,, of what possible use is that to his future, we need quality over quantity every time.

[Shermanator]

I remember that school was out for me usually around 01:00 to 02:00 pm. That left ample time to get back home, get home work done, grab a snack and the play outside, ride the bike to the forests, go swimming, whatever. I had a great life as a kid. When I look at our boys now, earliest they'll be home is 03:30pm, mostly 05:15pm if they do special learning. Home work isn't much, possible to get it done in 30mins which is ok. This is a village school.

My friend's kids however, who go to school in the next greater town, leave earliest 05:15pm, then have to go with the school bus for 50mins and come home with a s-load of home work you wouldn't believe! At times his kids are doing home work in his restaurant until 09:00pm and later! The girls are completely exhausted, and this can't be good for them.

A proper educational system would teach kids the must have basics and common knowledge in the morning to leave two hours to learn something they really love to do, like arts, photography, dance, sports, whatever and give the kids space to explore and find out what they want to do or to be in life.

Thailand, with its system of repetition and brainwash (greatest country in the world, never been occupied nor colonized BS, etc.), is unfit to move ahead into the future. They have to start by creating proper teachers, not teachers who learned repetition from their teachers. With a useless school system like the actual one, cutting or adding hours wouldn't change a damn thing. Thus I voted "it depends"...

Edited August 31, 2015 by Shermanator

[Shermanator]

I have a 15 year old Thai stepson. He is interested only in games on his smart phone. School work? Nah, can't be bothered. When I go out, nearly all the children I see are doing something with smart phones. Last week he told me he had an English test and he scored 15 out of 20. I asked him to tell me one of the questions but he could not remember even one. Despite having an English person living at home and English lessons at school, his English is appalling. His friends are just the same, don't care about school work under the "no fail" system and think they are clever. Under this system, Thailand be for ever a third world country.

Not only should school hours be increased, there should be less holidays, failure should be failure and children made to study both at school and at home with vast amounts of homework to get them away from computer games.

Can't understand Thai parents either who allow this situation to persist.

Most Thai parents don't care, plus they don't have the backbone to push their kids forward. Just look at your failed attempts. Now you have a different mindset and try your bst, still can't get him to learn. What do you think the average Thai parents can achieve, given they have next to none education and no interest in their kids education either. At our school I see parents, aunts and uncles dropping the kids off like sending dirty laundry to the shop. No kiss, no hug, no goodbye or , "Be a good boy!"... The parents who care are the businesspeople from around here, the more clever ones. They hug their kids goodbye or even give them a kiss, you can see they care, and you can see why they made it to kind of middle class and why the others still ride rotten Honda Dreams from 1973 with a sidecar that will fall apart any moment... There are Thais out there who WANT to get outta there, live a good life and are prepared to work for that. Their kids will follow suit. Most of the others will be lost as their parents are lost too...

[KhunBENQ]

I agree that not quantity but quality is the point.

They waste a lot of time with "roll calls", listening to speeches, drill exercises instead of effective education.

At the village school (for the poorest of the poor) they often do music drills, drumming and clattering for hours.

The quality of the teachers is miserable.

So how can long hours help in any way?

Our granddaughter is out for 11h to 12h total including bus ride.

When she comes home she has to do homework (mostly copy ready solutions from some Facebook "groups"?).

Weeks before any events they do some silly "cheerleader" like drills after hours.

So she misses the last bus and we have to pick her up by car (36 km roundtrip).

Useless waste of time.

At the end of the school-year she visits a private school after hours where they do real specific education, test preparation.

Having to pick her up for up to three days a week in the dark

The private teacher family has a big fancy house

Edited August 31, 2015 by KhunBENQ

[Brer Fox]

Good for teachers - bad for students. That is why these reforms would be teacher driven. Less teaching hours - same pay.

[alien365]

Since Thai's work very long hours in general, the school system seems to follow suit. A nine or ten hour working day for an adult is difficult enough but imagine being a child and having to concentrate for the same length of time at school. Once their concentration has gone teachers are just babysitting. Back in the day I started at 9am and finished at 3pm with an hours lunch and two breaks in between. Homework given on top of this made it more than enough hours of studying in my opinion.

[kannot]

well its not like many of them learn anything!

[kannot]

Since Thai's work very long hours in general, the school system seems to follow suit. A nine or ten hour working day for an adult is difficult enough but imagine being a child and having to concentrate for the same length of time at school. Once their concentration has gone teachers are just babysitting. Back in the day I started at 9am and finished at 3pm with an hours lunch and two breaks in between. Homework given on top of this made it more than enough hours of studying in my opinion.

bet a time n motion study would show they are not productive

[fred Kubasa]

Inasmuch as the Thai educational system ? is totally ineffective I don't believe reducing the hours, or, indeed, having to go to school at all is important. Street smarts will serve most

far better then the " no fail" schools !

[Scott]

Good for teachers - bad for students. That is why these reforms would be teacher driven. Less teaching hours - same pay.

The teachers will still be required to be at school. Teachers will also be required to supervise extracurricular activities.

There is a great deal of inefficiency in the educational system in Thailand, but much of it is geared toward making them good Thai citizens. Western countries do much the same thing, but the scale is less. In Thailand there is the morning assembly which is a long drawn out process. On Friday afternoon there is the King's Anthem. There is Thai Scouting, which is an exercise in nationalism and that occurs each week. When a speech is given, I have asked students (and teachers) what is being said; nobody knows or pays any attention. But it is a part of learning to be a good Thai citizen and sit patiently and listen to a politician, monk or anyone of greater status than you speak for as long as they feel like they want to speak.

Too much time in the classroom stifles creativity. Learning is about experimenting, practicing and exploring the world around you. It is about learning to inquire and wanting to know. Starting the process too young or making it too long stifles those traits.

Education is a lot more than a cerebral exercise.

[quandow]

If the school systems would take some of that time and focus on physical education, I think everyone would benefit. I've taught for four years and the number of tubbies is growing at a frightening rate.

[lostoday]

I think it's a good idea. It will take them longer to figure out what is going on in their country.

[trianglechoke]

sometimes I give up and just think they are all mental

[maoro2013]

As I understand it the extracurricular activities take place at the school. It is merely a restructuring of the curriculum.

Let's see what happens

[Ace of Pop]

They only do a 4 Day week as it is. Thursday they play Scouts n Guides or Red Cross , then finish early on Friday..plus all the Teacher Meetings to organize the next outing. Bloody but farce imp.

[WorldTravellerMUC]

I believe the start should be to bring all the teachers upt to the same level so they can teach the kids properly. This would be step one and step two would be a comparison to the educational systems in the rest of Asia and try to compare to the best one. Then figure out what are the differences and what should be improved.

I bet the outcome is NOT to reduce hours!

[kannot]

sometimes I give up and just think they are all mental

no need to think..............they are!!

[Crazy chef 1]

I believe the start should be to bring all the teachers upt to the same level so they can teach the kids properly. This would be step one and step two would be a comparison to the educational systems in the rest of Asia and try to compare to the best one. Then figure out what are the differences and what should be improved.

I bet the outcome is NOT to reduce hours!

It's called a GAP analysis...

[Shermanator]

Hhhhmmm, thinking about it - a few hours per week less of bad education is a good thing, no?

[wabothai]

They may learn more outside than inside the classroom.

Thus YES.

[cooked]

I know about the situation in two private schools near here. No sport (sport day consists of 90% of the school sitting around all day with a few bored cheer leaders glumly egging their team on), no music, no dance or art classes. At the same time, if you don't pay for extra classes the teachers don't get extra income and so those children whose parents can't afford classes tend to get low marks for some reason.

Less hours will surely result in more extra tuition

[smotherb]

I have a 15 year old Thai stepson. He is interested only in games on his smart phone. School work? Nah, can't be bothered. When I go out, nearly all the children I see are doing something with smart phones. Last week he told me he had an English test and he scored 15 out of 20. I asked him to tell me one of the questions but he could not remember even one. Despite having an English person living at home and English lessons at school, his English is appalling. His friends are just the same, don't care about school work under the "no fail" system and think they are clever. Under this system, Thailand be for ever a third world country.

Not only should school hours be increased, there should be less holidays, failure should be failure and children made to study both at school and at home with vast amounts of homework to get them away from computer games.

Can't understand Thai parents either who allow this situation to persist.

What you are describing is not just a Thai problem. School systems all over the world are dumbing-down their curricula in order to appease the students and parents who do not want to see failure. Instead of enforcing a strict learning environment--which invariably boils down to teachers saying students do not learn or parents and students saying teachers do not teach--schools all over are sanctioning social passing. Schools are lessening the complexity of the assignments, using more lenient assessment criteria, allowing multiple attempts at the same assignment, and simply passing a student who has not mastered the subject matter, even after multiple attempts at it.