Time to reform education: PM Prayut

[webfact]

EDUCATION
Time to reform education: PM
Anapat Deechuay,
Jeerapong Prasertpolkrung
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- FOR education reform to materialise detected flaws need be fixed - such as reforming the process of assessing students and devising exams with more open-ended questions, Education Ministry permanent secretary Kamjorn Tatiyakavee has said.

His comments follow a call from Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha for relevant agencies to envision "good quality education that reduces inequality and caters to labour market demands".

To support that goal the PM has ordered a database to be drawn up on the country's labour market - with information that also forecasts future employment trends.

The Education Ministry, the National Statistical Office and the Office of National Economic and Social Development Board were told to complete the database - to provide the ministry with a "big picture view" of the labour market and make plans accordingly - in a month. At a meeting of the education "superboard" on Friday, Prayut told the ministry to improve education standards and implement what he had assigned them to do by the next academic year.

Prayut, as the superboard chairman, appointed his deputies, ACM Prajin Juntong and Somkid Jatusripitak, as the superboard's vice presidents. They have replaced Yongyuth Yutthawong and ADM Narong Pipatanasai in accordance with the Cabinet reshuffle.

Kamjorn told a press conference on Friday that the superboard compared Thailand's education system to other countries and resolved to focus on English-language communication skills, science, engineering and maths from the primary school level.

He said many things would be fixed such as exam papers that contained more open-ended questions and improving the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment.

He said reducing the time that pupils spend in classes - which will be begin today at 4,100 pilot schools - would result in students engaging in activities built around the "4H" concept - head, hand, heart and health.

The scheme would be assessed continuously, starting with 300 "smart trainer" teams checking the pilot schools after the first two weeks. The remainder of the schools nationwide are due to join the scheme in the next academic year.

In response to labour market demands for more vocational college graduates, Kamjorn said Prayut had assigned the Department of Skill Development to determine if skilled workers receive more money so adjustments can be made, if necessary.

NESDB secretary-general Porametee Vimolsiri said the joint public-private sector programme targeting vocational students would result in improvements in seven fields to meet labour demands and support national development plans.

The areas are merchant marines; rail transport; the petrochemical industry; electricity generation; tourism; food safety technology; and the mould industry.

Porametee said with full integration of the Asean Economic Community by year's end, Thailand could become an education hub for member countries that need personnel trained in fields such as accounting and engineering.

Sansern said the PM also wanted higher education improved to meet development needs by focusing on producing workers to meet present and future economic and social conditions. Graduates must obtain excellence in accordance to an institute's mission and goals.

"The prime minister wants education reform to ensure all Thai children receive the best educational opportunities, learn happily and be developed using the 4H concept, while also being instilled with the pride of Thainess, self-reliance and a majority-benefit conscience," he said.

"Teachers and educational personnel should also be working happily and allow private sector participation in education management to strengthen the country's economy while the government will support it [education] in accordance to the Pracharat state-people policy guideline."

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Time-to-reform-education-PM-30272065.html


-- The Nation 2015-11-02

[selftaopath]

[NongKhaiKid]

Wow, another earth shattering revelation from The Man !%3

[noitom]

He pontificates that it's time for change in Thai education. It's been time for change for decades and decades, where has this guy been?

[Laughing Gravy]

How can children and young adults change in education when the politicians cant accept change themselves. Sought of hypocritical really. the same message week in and year after year but no change. Yes get rid of multiple choice questions, instill academic riquor, eliminate cheating as an acceptable way to achieve and then you have a start in the right direction for change. I am not holding my breath.

[rebelplatoon]

But, will someone actually ACT?

[waldroj]

Not another hub!

Bit tough on the primary school level kids to focus on engineering (could wait until they finish year 12).

[Squeegee]

Time to change History as well, apparently.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/867474-new-thai-history-textbook-seen-as-inflammatory-not-neutral/

[clockman]

Come back in 10 years time!

[NongKhaiKid]

Come back in 10 years time!

And the message will still be the same ! ?

[recycler]

Some scary rethorics reminding of the late 30ties in Europe:

He said reducing the time that pupils spend in classes - which will be begin today at 4,100 pilot schools - would result in students engaging in activities built around the "4H" concept - head, hand, heart and health.

[paymaster]

The naysayers must admit education in LOS has problems. I've read about them inTV for years. English teaching expats whingeing about no failures allowed in schools catering to the wealthy. You buy a pass rather than an education. In all fairness couldn't the PM get a little credit where it seems due?

[Thian]

Don't let students use calculators for the first years.

[upena]

Keep saying education will be reformed, keep making changes every 6 months, keep the masses uneducated and in debt - right where you want them

[Lupatria]

A well educated population would hardly accept the rule of a junta.

[cmiuc]

If you push Thais to remember their culture" in one breath(yesterdays PM words), then to reform education won't work...

I am in my 14th year of teaching, and I am in a school in the country that claims to have OBEC Gifted Students who cannot even speak english in the upper grades after being taught all these years... yet they are "Gifted Students" I was given the evil eye by both the teachers/academic and of course by the students because most of them got 3.0 to 3.5 gpa for the semester, a couple of 4's but they expected all of them to have a GPA 4.0... which I had to modify my teaching to very simple standards with mostly set on listening as talking in class was a waste of time, because we had the "1" student who spoke english better than the rest be the translator... Now I am on the S-List in the school... because as most foreigners, we grade with honesty and how many times we already have to create a magical creative way to pass students? If reform was "to work honestly for your grade" and if you didn't "you suffered the true consequences" than that would be a reform, not a creating 2 hour sports day, or focus only on Science or Math as you need everything to be balanced... then you would start seeing students who truly deserve their place in the school system... but until that happens from that level, its all just fluff.

another matter, as stated, ""Teachers and educational personnel should also be working happily and allow private sector participation in education management to strengthen the country's economy while the government will support it [education] in accordance to the Pracharat state-people policy guideline."

How many Thai teachers do this? to work honestly in school only gets you the boot... to express your opinions or promote better ideas gets you the boot, to speak up when being framed gets you the boot, so therefore until the administration forces schools to accept the foreigners ways as it should be meant too, after all you are teaching your own native language... therefore you have a bit more understanding how it works than the non-natives... well, reform would be the key to change from the lower levels of the school....

So Mr PM, change the tree structure where it needs it, Get to the "root" of the problems and at least put some real control back into the hands of the directors and administrators instead of the teachers, then maybe things can grow in the right direction along with the rest of the worlds education system...

[Caspersfriend]

2/10 - see me after school for attitude adjustment!

[kiwikeith]

Does this mean that children will start learning at school?

[whatproblem]

Seems everything is more important than reforming the police ! If had a professional police force they could act on the corruption than is in every sector of Thai life ,wouldn't want that would we?

[Balance]

Open ended questions simply mean that the students don't need to know any facts. How about teaching kids what a percentage is and how percentages are used? How about making sure that the Thai English teaches can speak English?

An anecdote may be helpful. A couple of years ago I stopped at a small shop in Moo Ban to buy some eggs. They had the trays stacked up with a price of 120Bt for one tray (30 eggs). However, I was on the motorbike and could not take a tray, so I asked a young boy for 15 eggs (in Thai). He understood I wanted 15 eggs, but when I wanted to pay him, he could not give me a price. His older brother (14 or 15) came over and the two of them tried to figure out what to charge me. Finally, I asked to use their calculator and showed them that 15 was half of 30, so if price for 30 was 120 Bht, then price for half would be 60 Bhat. But the older one was not buying this. At the end, their father came over and was clearly very angry. He grabbed the calculator and divided 30 into 120 and then multiplied it by 15.

I am told by my teacher friends that the inability to apply very simple arithmetic is not uncommon. Shorting the school day so they can spend more time on their smart phones is NOT headed in the right direction.

The children, from a very early age, need to be taught that learning is both necessary and requires effort. They also need to understand what failure is.

[Thian]

Open ended questions simply mean that the students don't need to know any facts. How about teaching kids what a percentage is and how percentages are used? How about making sure that the Thai English teaches can speak English?

An anecdote may be helpful. A couple of years ago I stopped at a small shop in Moo Ban to buy some eggs. They had the trays stacked up with a price of 120Bt for one tray (30 eggs). However, I was on the motorbike and could not take a tray, so I asked a young boy for 15 eggs (in Thai). He understood I wanted 15 eggs, but when I wanted to pay him, he could not give me a price. His older brother (14 or 15) came over and the two of them tried to figure out what to charge me. Finally, I asked to use their calculator and showed them that 15 was half of 30, so if price for 30 was 120 Bht, then price for half would be 60 Bhat. But the older one was not buying this. At the end, their father came over and was clearly very angry. He grabbed the calculator and divided 30 into 120 and then multiplied it by 15.

I am told by my teacher friends that the inability to apply very simple arithmetic is not uncommon. Shorting the school day so they can spend more time on their smart phones is NOT headed in the right direction.

The children, from a very early age, need to be taught that learning is both necessary and requires effort. They also need to understand what failure is.

5555

Last week i bought 4 products from 15 baht each and gave them 60 baht.....he wouldn't accept it.

Then a collegue had to come and also didn't know if that was right so they called dad who brought a calculator and he told me it was 70 baht.

I refused and used his calculator to show him how much 4x15 was....finally he agreed.

[MZurf]

The naysayers must admit education in LOS has problems. I've read about them inTV for years. English teaching expats whingeing about no failures allowed in schools catering to the wealthy. You buy a pass rather than an education. In all fairness couldn't the PM get a little credit where it seems due?

Sure, if I thought that he meant it, but as has been pointed out a more enlightened populace is anathema to junta rule.

Unfortunately the old wind bag is just flapping his mouth. One of the first things he did after the coup was to order rote learning of his 12 "principles" as well as more marching and flag waving - hardly the way to go to improve education.

[Kru Baa]

while also being instilled with the pride of Thainess, Yeah right. That is prtty much all the curriculum focuses on now. So much pride in being Thai with nothing to be proud of really.

[Thunderbirds20]

Thai Education system needs to include knowledge of the rest of the world, ...Geography and History, but the most important thing a person ca learn in school is "How to Learn" which include good work habits and the ability to self educate! ... how to do research and find answers on their own!

I am amazed by the ignorance most thai people show about the rest of the world, ... for example - my ex-wife once asked me, "Australia, that is close to England isn't it? ... and she graduated from University. No wonder Thai University diploma are not recognized as having any merit outside Thailand.

[kingstonkid]

Okay

First things first.

REMOVE THE SOCIAL PASS. If a student can not function at a grade 3 level how the hell are they going to do any better in grade 4.

Get rid of the EP class system. It is only a way for schools to make more money not to provide students with better education.

Set up a set of tests that new teachers have to pass before they get their degree or licence to teach ( NES as well as Thai)

Look at the top countries for education and see what they are teaching. This excludes the US which is having major difficulties.

Establish a minimal line of what schools have to teach. Math, Thai, English, History, Geography and science.

Establish NATIONAL guidelines for what students are expected to learn in a year. Establish a national test that is NOT multiple choice that students in Matayom must pass.

Establish a system where universities get grant money or federal assistance dependent on their ranking as a school and the quality of the students that they graduate.

These are just the beginning of what is needed but would be a good starting point.

[Farang99]

Before anything can be done about the students they need to reform the system of teacher training, which at present produces parrots who know no more than the text book tells them and are unable to communicate with the students, who simply learn everything by rote and repeat it for the exams without any understanding

[Kru Baa]

Thai Education system needs to include knowledge of the rest of the world, ...Geography and History, but the most important thing a person ca learn in school is "How to Learn" which include good work habits and the ability to self educate! ... how to do research and find answers on their own!

I am amazed by the ignorance most thai people show about the rest of the world, ... for example - my ex-wife once asked me, "Australia, that is close to England isn't it? ... and she graduated from University. No wonder Thai University diploma are not recognized as having any merit outside Thailand.

One of my colluges was telling me that at his prvious school one of the Thai teachers told him That the King of Thailand gave England to the King of England so that he could have a kingdom too. When he asked her where she had heard that, she said that she had learned it in University.

Edited November 2, 2015 by Kru Baa

[abitmiffed]

He pontificates that it's time for change in Thai education. It's been time for change for decades and decades, where has this guy been?

In his bunker planning how to take over the world.

[abitmiffed]

Not another hub!

Bit tough on the primary school level kids to focus on engineering (could wait until they finish year 12).

Bit is it tough?

Teach apples or spanners and nuts and bolts now and in 10yrs,,,,,, well think about it. My daughter is 4 and she knows what and how to use power tools.

Just a thought

[BlindMagician]

Not another hub!

Bit tough on the primary school level kids to focus on engineering (could wait until they finish year 12).

Bit is it tough?

Teach apples or spanners and nuts and bolts now and in 10yrs,,,,,, well think about it. My daughter is 4 and she knows what and how to use power tools.

Just a thought

Not a good one. Walk before you can run. Using a spanner or a powertool does not equate to the substance of engineering.