Dedicated teacher makes all the difference at a small, rural school

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SMALL SCHOOL
Dedicated teacher makes all the difference at a small, rural school
Chularat Saengpassa
The Nation
Chiang Mai



Willingness to work hard and teach kids after hours paying off in the far North

CHIANG MAI: -- IN A REMOTE corner of Chiang Mai province, a 50-year-old teacher has proven that the key to tackling illiteracy is "dedication", which she found can overcome all imaginable problems like limited resources and the lack of teaching staff.

Thanikan Taay is also prepared to conduct extra classes for worthy students whenever she has free time. She gives up her evenings for that purpose between Monday and Friday and, if her schedule is not too tight, she even offers classes on weekends.

She has also become an inspiration for many young teachers at the Wat Ngiew Thao School, who also provide free classes from time to time. The school, in Samoeng district, takes students from kindergarten up to Mathayom 3 level.

The dedication of these selfless teachers works like magic for this small school and its 106 students, many of whom are turned away by other, better-equipped educational institutions.

The third external assessment (2011-2015) by the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (Onesqa) shows Wat Ngiew Thao School earned a "good" grade, up from "fair" in the previous assessment.

In the bigger picture, the "good" grade represents a remarkable success. Nearly half of the country's 24,805 small schools, after all, failed Onesqa's assessments.

Wat Ngiew Thao School is now well on the way to soaring even higher. Dedduang Chomsiri, its director, believes it should be able to earn a "very good" grade in Onesqa's fourth assessment.

Dedduang said the school had also heeded Onesqa's advice to use distance-learning TV programmes, which are available thanks to an initiative kick-started by His Majesty the King.

"Teachers are advised to watch these programmes with their students and provide more detailed explanations if they notice that their students don't get something," Thanikan said.

Professor Dr Channarong Pornrungroj, Onesqa's director, said Wat Ngiew Thao School was a great example of a small school that has put his agency's advice to good use and achieved improvements.

Thanikan, who is head of the school's academic affairs, works diligently alongside 11 other teachers. Since her transfer to the school five years ago, Thanikan has never stopped her efforts to make it better.

"When I first came here, I found that many of the primary students were still practically illiterate," she said. "So, I convened teachers' meetings to identify problems and explore solutions".

Thanikan said she held meetings and found that the school had come up with many constructive projects to help the students but those projects were so scattered that they hardly made a difference.

The solution, she pointed out, was to merge all those ideas to make them easier for the small number of teachers to handle. These projects focus on boosting the students' learning potential and their academic knowledge, as well as taking full advantage of the Internet and mobile libraries.

"We have made sure that every teacher is mainly in charge of at least one project," Thanikan said.

In her opinion, there is no sound excuse for student illiteracy because every teacher should be able to help their students learn how to read and write.

"It takes about three months to teach students the alphabet and vowels, and the basics of combining them," she said. She insisted that the mission was not difficult and, with dedication, the teachers might be able to accomplish it faster by producing interesting teaching materials.

Thanikan said she always lets the younger teachers at her school know that they should be proud of their job because they can help children by giving them the tools to build a better life for themselves.

"Working in a small, rural school is, of course, more challenging than working in a city-based school," she said, "And perhaps that can be a reason for you to feel prouder". She said her attitude must be rubbing off on the teachers because the number of teachers seeking transfers has dropped.

Thanikan does not see the limited number of teachers whose majors do not cover all subjects as a serious issue because teachers who hold a bachelor's degree should be able to teach their students anything.

She pointed out that when teachers find they don't know something, they can seek more knowledge from various sources.

Fast Facts about Small Schools

Definition: Schools that have no more than 120 students each.

Total Small Schools in Thailand: 24,805

Total Small Schools that failed Onesqa's criteria: More than 9,000 (most are supervised by the Obec).

Sources: Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (Onesqa), Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec)

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Dedicated-teacher-makes-all-the-difference-at-a-sm-30274845.html


-- The Nation 2015-12-14

[Emster23]

Dedicated teachers (and students) are what makes the difference in any learning situation anywhere. Good for her.

[casualbiker]

Nice little stab at OBEC.. Well deserved in my opinion.. Them

and Khurusapha are a waste of space!

[northernphil]

Someones geography is a bit iffy. Samoeng is not in the far north. Maisai is but C/Mai is a lot more south.

[Eddy B]

I did one year of volunteer teaching but when it came to the following year to renew my visa, immigration wanted degree documents and a letter from Krusapa. I explained that I am doing this for free and applying for a work permit to teach less than 50 students a week. They were not interested and so I quit the teaching at that school and changed my visa extension to Non O for marriage. To this day it still pisses me off that immigration took away the chance for these kids to learn English!

[jaiyenyen]

Why don't you teach, using your Non Imm 'O' visa?

[casualbiker]

Yup.. You can get a work permit on a Non O marriage visa. And it also handily sidesteps the <deleted> (bureaucrats at immigration)

[Eddy B]

I do not have a degree but I do have a TEFL and 10 years of teaching experience. Still not good enough for Immigration and the labour office.

[casualbiker]

I do not have a degree but I do have a TEFL and 10 years of teaching experience. Still not good enough for Immigration and the labour office.

Khurusapha actually have a letter for volunteer teachers to get around the problem. If you still want to do it ask the school to enquire! You should find a copy on here somewhere. I posted it a few months ago.

[Eddy B]

I do not have a degree but I do have a TEFL and 10 years of teaching experience. Still not good enough for Immigration and the labour office.

Khurusapha actually have a letter for volunteer teachers to get around the problem. If you still want to do it ask the school to enquire! You should find a copy on here somewhere. I posted it a few months ago.

I would be grateful if you could send me the link to that post that you mention.

[hgma]

Real life story.

My son had 'trouble' @ the school he was on........

We, and the management tried everything, to no difference.

We decided to take him back home, when his teacher stood tall and refused to give up on him.......

Dedication with experience moved our son from back bencher to front bencher.......that's 5 years ago..........

ALL credits to his female teacher and staff of St Paul NongKhai!!!!!!