Political Manipulation In Thai Educational System Leads To Low Standard

[Jai Dee]

Political Manipulation in Thai Educational System Leads to Low Standard

Most poll respondents surveyed in Bangkok recently pointed out that the Thai educational system has been manipulated by politics. Polls showed that a high percentage of respondents have lost confidence in the Thai educational system. Respondents have suggested the Thai government to cultivate quality teachers. They also said that the state agencies will not be able to find ways to eliminate the the string-pulling culture practised in schools nationwide.

Dhurakij Pundit Poll showed 43.1 percent of the respondents said national education system has failed because of intervention of the politics. Some 24.1 percent thought that unqualified system was caused by educational institutes themselves. Only 19.1 percent said that the students contributed to low quality education.

As for hopes of improvement, 19.7 percent of respondents wanted the government to improve teachers’ teaching quality, while 19.3 percent wanted to see more ethics and moral amongst teachers. 18.8 percent alone said the existing curriculum needed to improve so that they can be compatible to the international educational standard.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 15 November 2006

[Ijustwannateach]

Yup! All of the above is true, and more.

Forcing students who fail to repeat grades or drop out would be an improvement over current affairs.

[Loaded]

I agree, but if you conducted a similar study in any other country the results would probably be similar. Large bureaucracies that are controlled by politicians, such as ministries, will always be ineffective, incompetent, and open to corruption.

[Scott]

Well, I don't know where your teaching, but for most of us, failing isn't an option! It takes moving heaven and earth (and usually isn't worth the trouble) to fail a student. If we want to fail a student, we must give them a retest. Basically, the teacher gets to jump through all kinds of hoops, rather than the student.

I have found it's best to use tests as a benchmark of what I am doing and how well I am getting it across and also for the students to know, objectively, how well they are doing. The grade they ultimately get will be in accordance with the wishes of system in place. To do otherwise is like swimming upstream.

Of course, much of this is because of the excessive emphasis on tests and test scores and on political muddling.

My biggest concern with the system in place is that it doesn't help students to have a realistic understanding of their abilities in a certain area.

[Rhys]

Hmmm..yada... yada... Well, we do have to address the changing behaviors and attitudes of the current crop of students.. What was it a while ago from the Previous ADM.. A computer for every child... Hmm.. ching, ching..ching..

Giving the F... Some schools do it some do not.. GET OVER IT.. WE do it..

Major factor: CLASS size.. How do you teach a group of 150-183 NON-English majors? Very poorly. And the ADM does not see a problem with class size.. GET OVER IT.. IT is baby sitting..

We do the best we can.

The Quality of English teachers... Again GET OVER IT.. It is what it is...

In the end, it is, and will alway be.. Money politics.. REMEMBER the MILK SCAM... The School official in ESSARN.. years ago.. they were at their finest hour..

[Scott]

I read something in the paper that class size is going to be limited to about 40 students. I' m wonder what the "about" means in the equation!

[PeaceBlondie]

Limiting the class size to 25 or 28 would be about right. Some classes could have less than 20, such as advanced English for M6. But the government and the taxpayers don't want to pay for all the new classrooms and teachers.

Of course, politics is involved because it's government money, funded by parliament. And it's provincial and local politics, too. Don't flunk the governor's child. Or the neice of the village headsman. Heck, they're all related, so nobody flunks.

In the Thai education system, is there a word for "flunk"?

[otherstuff1957]

Word for flunk?... It's pronounce 're-sa-core'.

[timber]

Here we go again. Everybody passes, what a travesty. That's never bothered me one little bit. I've been teaching for years and there have been very few students that were incapable of passing my course. 95 percent of the failing students simply can't be bothered to help themselves and even the most inspirational teacher is not going to reach them. Why would I want to fail them ? Most of them were lazy, pain in asses, who dragged the whole class down. Here's your fifty percent. Good riddence. I don't want you back next year to spoil another class. Anyone should be able to determine they are not much of a student whether they have the 12 percent they earned or the 50 percent they're given. Don't see this as a problem. What I do see as a major problem are the other scores. According to the MOE, 80-100 percent is a grade point average of 4.0. The grade point average is all the students care about because that's all the unversities see. But a student who gets 80 percent is not the same as the one who gets 99. Yet, in the eyes of university admissions they are one and the same. There is no real way for them to determine who is an outstanding student and who is just okay. 80 percent is a B- where i come from. This is a much bigger problem in my opinion than having to pass everyone.

[Scott]

Timber, couldn't agree with you more. I don't get all in a huff about the 50% thing. Basically, everyone in Thailand knows that a 50% is a failing student. If it keeps someone happy, so be it. At any rate this stuff is policy and as we all know policies are not always right.

[Ijustwannateach]

Thanks, but we don't really need any purely political diatribe here in the Teacher's Forum (one post deleted). And since someone's not getting the message, he's also getting a nice holiday from TV, free of charge.