Unesco report: Everything wrong in Thai education
Unesco's Global Education Monitoring report leaves no stone unturned for education in Thailand. The UN organization says that successive Thai governments since 2003 have failed to give primary education a quality boost.
At least 99 percent of Thais have had primary education and 85 percent have completed the first three years of secondary education. At the end of this, only 50 percent have sufficient reading skills. More than 3,9 million Thai people cannot read a simple sentence.
Another major problem is violence in schools: between 2010 and 2015, a third of students aged 13 to 15 were bullied and 29 percent were victims of violence.
The only positive thing is that in Thailand everyone has the right to education. This applies in only 55 percent of the countries surveyed by Unesco.
The command of the English language is very poor. On Education First's latest English Proficiency Index, Thailand ranks 53rd out of 80 countries where English is not the native language.
Many parents pay tea money to get their children placed in a quality school. But those (private) schools are only affordable for the well-to-do.
Source: Bangkok Post
In the months that I am in Thailand I would love to teach English at the local school, but that is not allowed, I will not get a work permit!
The children who interact with farangs speak better English than the teachers.
LA
I'm not surprised. I have been teaching English at a local primary school for about 5 years. According to them, the training for primary school teachers must certainly be overhauled.
Adri
As for learning English; if the teacher can't speak it properly how can they teach it to the kids? writing is still somewhat possible, but as soon as they have to pronounce it, it is wrong.
If the teacher cannot say R and pronounce the “Farang” as “Falang”, the children will do the same.
Makes sense anyway. And if a teacher can't count by heart, how do you want to teach it to the children? As Adri says, First improve the teacher training, only then can you improve the education
Could it not be that the government has an interest in keeping the population stupid?
Who said again: if you keep them stupid, I will keep them poor!
The Roman poet Juvenal once wrote: Panem et circenses.
Freely translated: Give the people bread and circuses.
Keep the people calm, but keep them stupid.
Gr Rambo
They were prelates in France, in the Middle Ages. But our shitty government still uses this statement. Albeit not in writing. Democracy mainly means: Divide and conquer.
What can you expect from education in a country where you are not allowed to be critical, have an opinion, let alone ask a question?
This translates to the behavior of Thai people in everyday life. They have never learned to argue and know no gray zone. It's black or white.
Question something with Thai people and the atmosphere is immediately charged. They all have long toes.
I can agree with fred's opinion whether it is generalization you can argue about.
It is true that in the resort where I am staying a group wanted to work to keep the resort beautiful and livable. Now that the result that suited the group had to be done and with a lot of loud shouting, arguments were shouted over, with the result that things have deteriorated.
So it is true what Fred writes only if you as a farang make a proposal immediately about it farang you do not interfere (only pay).
our daughter who is higher educated in Thailand has been in school until 22 years old
after a test and questions that are normal here, the further education in Thailand is comparable to a glorified 5th grade primary school in the Netherlands.
if your hair is neat, nice clothes and you can exercise is probably more important than knowledge.
it is a pity always a lot of money sent but actually thrown away.
Seems highly exaggerated to me. No one disputes that the level of any form of education in Thailand is low compared to other countries. But within Thailand and within the same level of education, there are also major differences.
Is the report a new version of this one from 2016? That's quite a bulk text:
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002457/245735E.pdf
According to another -smaller- report below from 2014, Thailand spends more on education than the other ASEAN countries. Investments in education have been made under Abhisit and Yingluck (more salary, adjustment of teacher training, access to e-learning). But money alone is not enough. Major stumbling blocks are:
– it is very inward looking, strongly hierarchies and top down
– lack of motivating critical thinking
– low quality of teachers with old ideas.
What is needed: motivating collaboration in groups, working/thinking on a project basis, focusing more on modern IT and giving teachers more freedom. Naturally, education must also focus more on the globalizing world. The report also calls for replacing our own national educational tests with internationally standardized tests.
https://www.oecd.org/site/seao/Thailand.pdf
Bonus: the report also describes the need for modernization of agriculture (reparcelling, increasing productivity and quality, etc.).
King Bhumibol once said this to students: “If there is a task to be accomplished, please pause and think first. Think about what exactly the assignment entails and what you have been told to do. Then use your own thoughts and reasoning. When in doubt, ask questions so you can perfect your knowledge. Silence can harm yourself, the community or the country.”
Loosely translated from page 203 of The King never smiles. Maybe something that can be used against those who think that the people should not think too much or better not ask questions and that those weird Unesco rapporteurs don't understand Thsilsns and Thainess.
I hope that Unesco's report has also been sent to this great government.
And no, of course you won't get a work permit, keeping it stupid is better.
It's a pity that someone has to admit it. The education is totally substandard. My neighbor's girlfriend is a mathematics regent. Teaches in the final year Higher Secondary, so students aged 18. One day I was visiting with a Belgian buddy. The exam questions were on the table. He looks at them and asks me: what year is this for? End of year Higher Secondary. He couldn't believe it, thought end of year PRIMARY school !!!!
As far as the English language is concerned, the only solution is to train all Thai teachers in English by a foreign English teacher and certainly not by a Thai teacher. So don't put the really English-speaking teachers in front of an ordinary classroom, that doesn't make any sense. Start with teacher training.
I have not (yet) read the report, but in my environment (Nakhon Ratchasima, not the smallest city in the country anyway) I experience the conclusion completely differently. To start with the positive point from the report: Everyone has the right to education. When I see how many educational institutions are present here, the future of illiteracy must be doomed. What a bustle of students going to school. They largely determine the traffic pattern during rush hours. Fortunately, no accidents have been seen in the past year, because you have to have eyes in the back of your head to avoid the motorbikes from time to time.
Then I wonder how people come to know that millions of Thai people can read so badly. A "representative" group of people tested perhaps? By the way, I can well imagine that knowledge becomes diluted with someone who does not need a written language to earn his daily bread, and there are quite a few of them. At least they can all do math, is my personal experience.
Then there is criticism of the government that is allegedly responsible for it. But I believe that the same government is also responsible for the good development that I see around me every day. I have been living in Thailand for a year and a half and I must say that I feel a lot safer here than in the Netherlands, especially in the big cities. The first time I came to Thailand and got off at the wrong BTS stop, I was escorted by an armed soldier (an attack had just taken place at the time) to the place where I could get on to return to the correct station. I was initially a little afraid to speak to him, but what kindness I received in return. My experiences at Dutch stations are the opposite. Being snubbed, if you can find someone at all, and information is only provided sparingly, if not incorrectly.
As far as the English language is concerned, I think a place just below the middle bracket is not wrong. The report finds this very bad (?). My stepdaughter not only learns English at school but also Chinese. And that seems to me to be just as important to the Thai as English, given the economic opportunities of this gigantic neighboring country. But of course such a general report does not take this into account.
I will conclude by noting that the quality of education in the Netherlands has plummeted in recent decades. I have many contacts with educators at all levels and will spare you the details, but the bottom line is that degrees are given away for a variety of reasons.
Nowadays, even kindergarten teachers have to take quite a complicated language test because there is so much language lag in primary education. So I think I am right to wonder how long it will take before the conclusions of such a report will be applicable to Dutch education. And who is responsible for that?
even at the so-called quality schools the level is sadly low,.. don't ask questions to the students because if they don't know the answer they will lose face that is one of the worst things you can experience as a Thai. That is also the reason that everyone passes the exams, never seen repeaters in Thailand.
Foreign teachers are also a crime to learn English. Know a lot of English teachers from London origin.. Only speak the London accent.. Worked in English all my life... Can barely understand these Teachers. Here, too, the students learn unintelligible English.
The teachers are no good, the teacher training is no good, the motivation of the students is no good, the socio-political climate is no good, if they leave the education to us everything will be fine, if I summarize the reactions.
On this map (see link), which shows the percentage of literacy per country, we see that ALL countries bordering Thailand score worse than Thailand.
Comparison with the Netherlands is of course not realistic, but I sometimes wonder how many Dutch people cannot write a simple sentence.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/CfW9eB0tjGYJx6Ah2
Well, I can answer that question after years of editing reader questions. About 95% of all reader questions to the editors of Thailandblog are full of errors. Then I'm not even talking about D and DT, but almost nobody knows where a comma or question mark should be. The use of capital letters and the like is also almost nobody's business. It's beyond horrible. And that despite spell check.
It sometimes goes wrong precisely because of spell check. Several times I have already posted a comment that contained wrong words because the 'automatic correction' was set to English or Dutch and then corrected me by itself. Add to that typing errors (you can easily find yourself with your fingers on the wrong key) and then a text can quickly contain various errors. If you also press 'send' without proofreading, you can guess the result. Fast, fast and on again instead of taking the time for something.
Yes, me too, several times I let out a 'damn it' when I read back a response from myself.
And then there are the oldies who don't know how to find the space bar. For example, it took me quite some time to explain to my grandmother how to make a space. And after a while of not tapping, she sometimes forgot again. She had always written by hand, never with a typewriter and then a keyboard is still quite uncomfortable and therefore difficult for an elderly person. But she does her best to keep up with the times.
I don't think Peter meant typos; this can happen to anyone. I also regularly get annoyed about the many language errors. Short “ei” instead of long “ij” or “g” instead of “ch” and so on,
I sometimes wonder if many of them went to school. It shouldn't be that hard to write decent Dutch, Or at least pay a little more attention to our mother tongue,
Just read an earlier response from Nicky of December 29, 15.26:XNUMX pm here. I notice a series of spelling and style errors such as incorrect use of spaces, semicolons, incorrect use of capitals and not using a closing period and some other imperfections. And all that in a few sentences.
My advice to Nicky to take the last sentence to heart.
The education is indeed very poor. But every day on TV I see hordes receiving a diploma from eoa dignitary(!!). And looking at the outfit (black cape and beret, American example) you would suspect that they are university graduates. However, I think they are plays.
And English is really bad! I recently had to pick up my wife's grandson from school. He had “English” for the last hour. Since it was well after the agreed time, I entered the school and asked the English “teacher” in English if it would take a long time. All I got was a look consisting of a mixture of incomprehension and panic. The man did not understand at all - even after repeating my question - what I was talking about.
Her grandsons only speak english because they HAVE to speak that to me from grandma.
Sic!
Gentlemen: Christmas over? Now to grumble for the turn of the year to 2018.
About the country where you are allowed to stay as a foreign guest.
A positive message from me about Guides.
PHANOM LUASUBCHAT speaks excellent English mobile:66-01-9604763.
Email: [email protected].
With regards and best wishes from a wet and cold Rotterdam.
The quality of education varies greatly depending on the school. I personally have a niece who goes to a rather “expensive” school. I am always amazed at what she has to learn at such a young age, a truly high level of reading, writing and especially mathematics. I have been doing difficult arithmetic exercises since the age of 6, and I also think the English language is at a very good level. Much higher level than here in Belgium. I also have another member of my family there, and I must say that the level in the school there is below par. They can barely read or write anything there at the age of 10 or 12.
Also my experience. My eldest stepdaughter has a final exam next week and is skipping the New Year festivities to study. Often at night too. And I've looked at the subject matter, but I can't criticize it. The youngest stepdaughter often has extra, voluntary subjects that she takes on weekends, in addition to secondary school. So more often goes to school 7 days a week. In the circle of acquaintances, there is also a lot of work being done in this regard. So that will certainly work out in Thailand. But of course it takes time. And according to your experience, what I argued about Dutch education also applies to Belgian education. It doesn't surprise me. The curve is inversely proportional. In a few decades, I think it will be the other way around. Let's hope not for our (grand)children. And indeed I can hardly read a (Dutch) error-free response. So everyone back to school! Probably me too because the spelling has changed since I left school in 1973.
A healthy and prosperous 2018 to all, in currently fresh Thailand and in chilly Europe.