New School Year. Cost of an English Programme

[laolover88]

Our friends are all moaning. Cost of an English Programme soaring. Approaching 20K. Native English speakers diminishing. Q? Is there any point? As one friend said: I am sure Cameroon is a lovely country with good people. He discovered on Wikipedia that the country has 1700 linguistic groups!. So he said I am not sure I want to pay them, as they speak French mainly, to teach my child English.

[FritsSikkink]

stop moaning about thai's and thailand and move to france

[attrayant]

20k sounds cheap. My school's EP is 34k per term. Last term all the western teachers quit, leaving only 8 Filipinos and one overworked & underpaid Chinese to teach English.

[Happy Grumpy]

Not best to move home for your kids sake?

[willyumiii]

and most Thai "English teachers" teach their English classes in the Thai language, not in the English language..

Because most Thai English teachers do not really speak English.

I have known some who can not even read or write in the English language, but they have a degree and they are " English teachers" !

The program is doomed to failure, students will not learn the English language without self motivation and outside help.

But, English programs do generate a lot of extra money for the schools.

[kingstonkid]

I may be biased but from where i sit as a teacher I find that the best thing a parent can do for their child is.

A. speak English at home even if it is 15 minutes and basic hello how are you stuff.

B. find them a good tutor.

C look at the quality of the students not at the quality of the program.

I teach privately and find that some of my students that are in EP classes know less English than the kids in the normal classes.

EP is IMNSHO just a method for schools to steal more money from parents. It does not mean that their kids are gong to learn more or be better students.

I have EP 5 students in my classes that can not say the phonetic alphabet or read but they are getting good grades at school.

Why

1. schools like the money

2. parents want the best for their kids and

3. the no fail policy means that no matter how bad your child is they will move to the next level.

[Johnniey]

I may be biased but from where i sit as a teacher I find that the best thing a parent can do for their child is.

A. speak English at home even if it is 15 minutes and basic hello how are you stuff.

B. find them a good tutor.

C look at the quality of the students not at the quality of the program.

I teach privately and find that some of my students that are in EP classes know less English than the kids in the normal classes.

EP is IMNSHO just a method for schools to steal more money from parents. It does not mean that their kids are gong to learn more or be better students.

I have EP 5 students in my classes that can not say the phonetic alphabet or read but they are getting good grades at school.

Why

1. schools like the money

2. parents want the best for their kids and

3. the no fail policy means that no matter how bad your child is they will move to the next level.

The phonetic alphabet isn't taught in Thailand so how on earth could they know?

[willyumiii]

I may be biased but from where i sit as a teacher I find that the best thing a parent can do for their child is.

A. speak English at home even if it is 15 minutes and basic hello how are you stuff.

B. find them a good tutor.

C look at the quality of the students not at the quality of the program.

I teach privately and find that some of my students that are in EP classes know less English than the kids in the normal classes.

EP is IMNSHO just a method for schools to steal more money from parents. It does not mean that their kids are gong to learn more or be better students.

I have EP 5 students in my classes that can not say the phonetic alphabet or read but they are getting good grades at school.

Why

1. schools like the money

2. parents want the best for their kids and

3. the no fail policy means that no matter how bad your child is they will move to the next level.

Everything you say is true.

I retired from teaching English in Thailand as a native speaker almost two years ago.

One major reason i decided to retire was my frustration over seeing the schools take advantage of the students and their parents.

Educating the students is not the priority..generating more money for the schools and teachers is what the English program is all about.

When I realized that I was an unwilling partner in their scam, I quit.

[pgrahmm]

30+ per term here....50/50 native versus Thai/PI ...... Would rather not have a PI teacher as they are more confusing (verbally bastardize the English language)....Hard to understand during conversation or school functions/speaking in person or over microphone/speaker systems....How are the kids going to get it straight?

2 daughters in school & it surprises me:

1- Lack of quality/outright errors/mistakes in the English workbooks....

2- Workbooks obviously not written by an English first language speakers (phrase/sentence/logic/instruction composition).....

Oldest daugher tells me that while studying in class the teacher reads through the fill in the blanks while the students fill them in.....To a non english household the parents see a nice completed workbook - while the students get less during their lessons.....

The non english households would never know.....

Aside from the (TVF) experts many parents are trying to better their kids lives via the use of english....

Edited May 15, 2016 by pgrahmm

[nikmar]

I may be biased but from where i sit as a teacher I find that the best thing a parent can do for their child is.

A. speak English at home even if it is 15 minutes and basic hello how are you stuff.

B. find them a good tutor.

C look at the quality of the students not at the quality of the program.

I teach privately and find that some of my students that are in EP classes know less English than the kids in the normal classes.

EP is IMNSHO just a method for schools to steal more money from parents. It does not mean that their kids are gong to learn more or be better students.

I have EP 5 students in my classes that can not say the phonetic alphabet or read but they are getting good grades at school.

Why

1. schools like the money

2. parents want the best for their kids and

3. the no fail policy means that no matter how bad your child is they will move to the next level.

Yep. All about the money.

At a school I taught at a P6 class (non EP) scored higher for an impromptu English test than an EP class.

Many, many complaints and threats from the parents and the scores mysteriously changed.

[pgrahmm]

Your Honor & members of the jury -

I rest my case......

[RawboneFunksta]

If an English program is managed solely by Thais of course it is likely to fail.

Find a good program run, at least at school level by well qualified (I don't mean they only posses a TEFL certificate) British teachers.

Discover how long the teachers have been at the school/program as that's a pretty good indicator of stability and good management.

Tutors may help some individuals as long as they are British native speakers but the classroom environment is more productive in terms of socialisation, skills, sharing and having fun while learning.

Try the British Council, they have in school programs.

[i claudius]

Our son is in university in BKK ,as he lived in the UK for many years his English is perfect,they were paying him to teach English,you couldn't make it up

[bikerlou47]

My daughter took the SAT college board exam last week at St Jon's Mary the proctor could not speak English well enough to be understood.

[willyumiii]

If an English program is managed solely by Thais of course it is likely to fail.

Find a good program run, at least at school level by well qualified (I don't mean they only posses a TEFL certificate) British teachers.

Discover how long the teachers have been at the school/program as that's a pretty good indicator of stability and good management.

Tutors may help some individuals as long as they are British native speakers but the classroom environment is more productive in terms of socialisation, skills, sharing and having fun while learning.

Try the British Council, they have in school programs.

I admire the pride of the British, but your pride is way outdated and stale.

If only Brits teach the language, the students will only learn the version of the language that those from a small island nation speak and understand.

The British are a small percentage of the people in the world that speak the language referred to as English.

With your unique pronunciations, spellings, expressions ( bloody this and all of that rot ) and various thick accents, it is difficult for many English speakers to understand.

With the extremely successful movie industry ( or cinema as Brits call it ) The American - west coast version of the language is the best understood and most used globally.

As I said before, I admire your pride.

Your country once dominated the world, before WWII

But that was over 70 years ago!

Cheerio! and all that bloody rot!

Edited May 16, 2016 by willyumiii

[mesterm]

20k sounds cheap. My school's EP is 34k per term. Last term all the western teachers quit, leaving only 8 Filipinos and one overworked & underpaid Chinese to teach English.

Are you saying the Filipinos didn't actually do much work, or as much as the Chinese one?

[attrayant]

Neither.

[mesterm]

IMG20160516161906.jpg

Your Honor & members of the jury -

I rest my case......

Well technically...

[gerryBScot]

It's great to read that the truth is finally emerging: English programmes are a waste of money.

[willyumiii]

20k sounds cheap. My school's EP is 34k per term. Last term all the western teachers quit, leaving only 8 Filipinos and one overworked & underpaid Chinese to teach English.

At my daughter's school ( where I was once a NES teacher ) they have mostly Philippine people teaching English now..

Philippine people wil work for lower pay than Native English Speakers will.

They are good people , but are difficult to understand, guess at the pronunciation of many English words, ( onion is pronounced as Oh- nee-eye on, and Rhino as Ree-no, like the city in Nevada) and are not extremely motivated..

They make a good effort at teaching, in the classroom and create good lesson plans, but any time not designated as classroom time ( over 50% of their paid time ) is spent hiding in an office eating or sleeping, and not out communicating with students in the English language as it should be.

Last year the school hired two young Chinese woman to teach Chinese to the students.

Both Chinese teachers spoke English far better than any of those who were teaching English.

They were both very diligent, organized ,and motivated, working many hours they were not paid for helping students who had the desire to really learn to speak Chinese.

The school asked one of the Chinese teachers to return this year and teach English

She declined the offer.

[DavisH]

Well, any school charging 20K a year (or even a semester), is hardly "all about the money". Those programs would have trouble functioning if they had to pay all native speaker salaries. One EP school I know charges at least 300-400K a year (only a M4-M5 school). Parents are willing to pay as they have a quota for entry to their associated University. Some of my students had wanted to go there, but declined after they told me "they just want money".

[bikerlou47]

Sometimes for laughs I watch them teaching English on the educational channel! Teachers have no idea...