Too many ministers and too many changes: Education reform ‘has gone nowhere’

[snoop1130]

Too many ministers and too many changes: Education reform ‘has gone nowhere’

By The Nation

 

 

EDUCATION reform has made little progress over the past three years while the country was controlled by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), according to speakers at a recent seminar in Bangkok.

 

People who attended the “Three Years, Three Ministers: Scrutinising The Progress of Thai Education Reform” event at Chulalongkorn University also heard a call to scrap O-Net (the Ordinary National Educational Test), the National Institute of Educational Testing Service (NIETS) and the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA).

 

Sompong Jitradap, education professor and head of Chualongkorn’s Research and Development Centre for Children and Youths, said education reform has been done conservatively by keeping content, curricula and old man-agement systems that could be traced back to 30 years ago and when the National Education Act 1999 took effect. 

 

Reform guidelines were unclear and no one felt like stepping forward to lead the way. But one laudable step was the cancellation of Teachers and Educational Personnel subcommittees, he said.

 

Thailand has had eight governments and 21 education ministers since 1999, Sompong said, each of whom had about six months and 16 days to work. Admiral Narong Pipatanasai, for example, could stay in the position slightly over a year; General Dapong Rattanasuwan had good policies, including reducing classroom time for learning activities and promoting educational access for poor students, but only held the post for a year and four months. Current Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin, who is determined to push reform, has had slightly over a year in the position.

 

‘Focus on quality’, Kriengsak suggests 

 

The NCPO had issued 146 orders under Article 44 of the Interim Charter - 16 of them related to the Education Ministry but mostly to tackle corruption and promote good governance, he said. With its top-down administration style, unstable politics and “too many” changes, these ministers only scored 3 out of 10 for their performance. So, the past three years failed to bring about any reform progress despite the special power, Sompong concluded. 

 

He urged the government to carefully review these matter and make decisions. One strong point, he said, was that the latest constitution carries many articles vital to education reform. 

 

The Education Ministry should also refrain from issuing unnecessary policies that only add to the burdens of officials and pull teachers away from the classroom. He also suggested scrapping the NIETS and ONESQA, saying the ministry should focus on bringing clarity to reform guidelines. 

 

Prominent scholar Kriengsak Chareonwongsak, who is a Senior Fellow from Harvard University, said the fact there had been many education ministers and a lack of progress on reform was partially due to the Thai culture of ignoring issues that can’t be resolved quickly and ignoring problems that are yet to have an impact “close-to-home”. 

 

He proposed that reform guidelines should focus on quality rather than quantity – teaching children how to think analytically, and ensuring PhD studies for both formal and vocational streams help to create a body of knowledge and innovation, as such studies indicate education quality. 

 

He also urged a decentralisation of administrative power and for officials to seriously tackle unequal access to education and improve the assessment system.

 

Anubal Satun School director Sutthi Saisunee said reform would be achieved if the key mechanism began in classes and schools, with teachers, students, parents and various sectors in communities. Teachers must aim to get pupils to face problems and analyse information for answers, he said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30316217

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-5-24

[Rhys]

Get rid of Thai Teacher's council.... for starters...

[YetAnother]

looks like education minister is some cushy do-nothing job to award to your friend/relative/friends' friend, etc

[clockman]

Big budget. Little progress. Except for ministers bank accounts.!

[Freed1948]

A complete lack of regard for the welfare of students by incompetent teachers. [not all but some who wish to play god]

[wakeupplease]

Did he say 3 years or the last 90 years?

[Jeremy50]

Never mind 'education reform'. Education 'has gone nowhere'

[Eric Loh]

Too scare to say "too much coups". 

[seminomadic]

Yes get rid of most if not all education ministries they're pure pork and  f f s  just use a globally-recognized, world standard test like IELTS for entry/exit from secondary or uni.  

 

Jeez.

Edited May 24, 2017 by seminomadic

[darksidedog]

Now, I hate to admit this, (miserable old git that I am), but kids these days learn way more from the internet than they ever will at school.

So, you see Chinese and Japanese kids, with WAY higher IQ's than the kids here, despite spending about half the time in the classroom as Thai's.

Shorten the hours at school, tell them what to google and incompetency just left the building. Save a fortune too!

Still don't have a cunning plan in place yet though, to stop some of the lazy little gits not doing their assignment.

Sorry about that, but Hey! You want all the answers, speak to God.

The Govt blocking access to ALL the information on a subject, is always going to retard your pupils learning though.

Edited May 24, 2017 by darksidedog

[yellowboat]

4 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Reform guidelines were unclear and no one felt like stepping forward to lead the way.

Thought they all had immunity.   Three years in power and they could not get around to even look at education.   The children are Thailand's future.  The elites do not want an educated population.  The educated are too difficult to scare. 

[samsensam]

 

plus ça change..

who'd have thunk it?

 

mai pen rai.

[djayz]

Surprise, surprise...

 

The whole thing is a shambles. 

[Dexlowe]

41 minutes ago, yellowboat said:

Thought they all had immunity.   Three years in power and they could not get around to even look at education.   The children are Thailand's future.  The elites do not want an educated population.  The educated are too difficult to scare. 

This has been said a million times, and given that education reform has been a critical priority on the national agenda for over 30 years, one has to believe it.

 

But never fear, someone will be along tomorrow with yet another Thai promise of quick action to solve the problem. Not to mention turning Thailand into the hub of Phd's.

[fruitman]

It all goes perfect! All those folks who resigned because they could't declare their wealth were corrupt and are out of the system now.

 

Now it's time to build it up again without any corruption.

[Reigntax]

5 hours ago, darksidedog said:

Now, I hate to admit this, (miserable old git that I am), but kids these days learn way more from the internet than they ever will at school.

So, you see Chinese and Japanese kids, with WAY higher IQ's than the kids here, despite spending about half the time in the classroom as Thai's.

Shorten the hours at school, tell them what to google and incompetency just left the building. Save a fortune too!

Still don't have a cunning plan in place yet though, to stop some of the lazy little gits not doing their assignment.

Sorry about that, but Hey! You want all the answers, speak to God.

The Govt blocking access to ALL the information on a subject, is always going to retard your pupils learning though.

 

Except IQ, learning ability and intelligence are not necessarily related.

 

Simply, IQ is related to ones ability to solve or understand and not their level of knowledge.

[Get Real]

That´s one reason why my daugther is in private school.

[PatOngo]

9 hours ago, Jeremy50 said:

Never mind 'education reform'. Education 'has gone nowhere'

I would interpret that as 'On Track"

[klauskunkel]

and why should the Education Reform fare any different than the Police Reform, or any other reform conceived by the government?

[mtls2005]

Too many ministers and too many changes: Education reform ‘has gone nowhere’

 

Mission Accomplished. Educating the masses would be the wrong thing to do, better to keep them dumbed-down and on the farm.

 

 

 

General Dapong Rattanasuwan had good policies, including reducing classroom time for learning activities 

 

Reducing classroom time, yeah that works.

 

[Happyman58]

Another achievement the Pm can talk about Education Nothing has changed In fact education is going backwards 3 ministers in 3 years Huge budget but corruption takes care of most of that money  This guy talking might be right what he is saying but nothing will change  There is no challenge for the students to do well in school dont matter if you get low marks they still accept you in university Maybe this guy talking might like to be  the minister of education

 

Stamp out corruption maybe hire a director from overseas to look after education and you might get somewhere Then again Pigs fly backwards around the moon right?

[YetAnother]

1 hour ago, klauskunkel said:

and why should the Education Reform fare any different than the Police Reform, or any other reform conceived by the government?

we have seen all the reform we are going to get from this govt

[Chris Lawrence]

The army needs to take over education portfolio. Kids just need to know which end the bullet comes out and the benefits of quick order drill has to ones life.

 

Education will only make one question. Not good in this environment. Keep the boffins with their head in their backsides.

[MaxLee]

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Too many ministers and too many changes: Education reform ‘has gone nowhere’

 

That's called insanity, doing same old crap for centuries and decades.... 

[Moti24]

These ministers of education are just ministers, many of whom have not set foot in a school since they graduated from grade 12, or more likely, grade 9.  Not many teachers look upon their career as their vocation in life, they just go through the motions of trying to appear professional, but in reality, they are anything but.

 

The biggest drawback in schools is the "Every student will pass" concept.  Students that understand that they will never be rocket scientists, just give up; they can't see the point of working hard to improve their education, some of whom are quite capable.  They have no incentive to do well because they will pass anyway.  Don't expect the parents to help as a lot of them drop their kids off at school at 6am and pick them up as late as 8pm, sometimes later.  Those who are interested in their child's education, send them to after school and weekend classes; those students are sleeping on their desks on Monday morning.

 

Thai culture encourages people to help each other; that is apparent in schools, with students copying homework on a daily basis, and generally cheating in exams.  The teachers actually condone this, and don't even turn a blind eye.  I have even seen teachers giving answers to students in final exams.  I have failed students in final exams, only for their marks to be changed in the administration office to reflect a pass.  This happens in every school, so if you have kids in school here, I suggest you keep a close eye on every part of their education, homework included.

 

About 11 years ago, I was at an education seminar.  I asked the guest lecturer why all students passed, and why weak students weren't held back in the same year.  I was told that within the next 1/2 years, that would be happening in schools.  True to those words, that directive was implemented, but the criteria for being held back for a second year in the same grade was that students should fail every subject.  Well, all students graduated because they all passed physical education.

 

If any of you are expecting any changes to the current education system, don't hold your breath.  In reality, the education system doesn't want changing, it wants completely renewing.  But, we all know, that'll never happen.

[yooyoo]

I am sorry to say but the Thai education system is a reflection of the cultural deficiencies...everyone knows better and not prepared to take advise from outsiders while most teachers and administratorder  are too lazy to do a proper job.....it comes from being an insular cultural.....a Thai graduates from university but can't speak English.....too much poor quantity!!! Little quality!!!

[Ceruhe]

12 hours ago, darksidedog said:

So, you see Chinese and Japanese kids, with WAY higher IQ's than the kids here, despite spending about half the time in the classroom as Thai's.

There is also a difference between "spending time in the classroom and studying/learning something" and "spending time at school/classroom for some random, pointless, waste of time activity every other day, ceremonies and otherwise cancelled classes".

 

Then again, ranting about education is probably a thing we've done in every country all of our lives. It's heavily outdated most everywhere, but that's the plan anyway, can't have people think and getting smart now, can we?

 

Also, looking forward to tomorrows, or the day after, article on how the a new plan will be drafted immediately and be in effect by next month and having magically fixed nothing down the road, self patting on the back for some major accomplishment that somehow occured anyhow. But that's another article of course in a few months.

[Dexlowe]

1 minute ago, Ceruhe said:

Also, looking forward to tomorrows, or the day after, article on how the a new plan will be drafted immediately and be in effect by next month

Basically what I said earlier. What we are discussing now is exactly what has been discussed for the past 30 years. It's a hardy perennial. For another view on the situation, go to the Bangkok Post website and read Sanitsuda Ekachai's article on education. This courageous woman hits the nail on the head.

[the guest]

It's the system that needs to be totally changed, along with attitudes of 'them and us'. The 'elites' are strangling Thailand, and until this changes, there no hope for the country. 

[Moonlover]

1 hour ago, Dexlowe said:

Basically what I said earlier. What we are discussing now is exactly what has been discussed for the past 30 years. It's a hardy perennial. For another view on the situation, go to the Bangkok Post website and read Sanitsuda Ekachai's article on education. This courageous woman hits the nail on the head.

I have just read the article alluded to above by Ms. Sanitsuda and was struck by her perceptiveness. And, as mentioned, her courage. 

 

It reminds me of a very similar article that I read a few years ago, also by a prominent woman on the topic of education. But, she wasn't writing about Thailand, this article appeared in an Egyptian magazine! I was struck by the profoundly similar sentiments.

 

It should be noted that the governance of the two countries is very similar. I suspect it is a common feature among countries that  have a strong monopolistic leadership who wish to keep it that way.

 

Another factor, not mentioned in either article is the influence and affect of religion on the educational system. Kids that are brought up under a strong religious influence are more malleable. They are preconditioned to accept what they are told without question.  (Taught what to think, not how to think)

 

An interesting observation by Napoleon Bonaparte goes: ''Religion is excellent stuff for keeping the common people quiet''.