The Thai Education System is in Shambles

Teachers looking for a free lunch ruin quality of education for kids


The Nation/Thai-blogs.com

Stephen Cleary

Much was said over this past school year about the number of dubious foreign English teachers operating in Thailand.

Hardly a month has gone by without some news about a crackdown on foreigners with Mickey-Mouse qualifications to teach English.

Let us today however, have a look at the local Thai teachers. While stories of foreign teachers/child molesters have made national headlines, the equally disturbing stories of Thai male teachers taking advantage of their students make the back page - obviously due to the fact that such indecencies are absolutely nothing new. If the culprits are unlucky, they may get kicked out of the civil service. And I specifically mention civil-servant teachers, as they are held in high respect within Thai society, and are often allowed to get away with more than their peers.

A lot of foreign teachers spend their time in the teachers' room listening to tales from their Thai counterparts about their wonderful post-graduate degrees. As a Thai-to-English translator, I cannot recall just how many master's degree theses I have translated for these teachers. Whenever I asked for specific details related to the research, they hadn't a clue and it was quite obvious that they hadn't done any of the work themselves. In fact, this is a normality in Thailand. Even though there may be very few Thai teachers walking around with suspect accredited credentials, there are quite a number who did virtually nothing to get their degrees besides attend the exams - should they fail, just try again.

Continued

Stephen Cleary is the co-founder of www.thai-blogs.com. He can be contacted at stevesuphan@gmail.com.


The thing that is disturbing about this column is that a foreign writer has to do the job of the Thai press and of the Thai bureaucrats who are responsible for overseeing education policy in this country. But many Thai media figures have shitty credentials also. Both institutions are corrupt, which is why nothing changes. But Thais think by covering up shit with chocolate it will make the shit taste sweet. As long as things are covered up rather than dealt with in an honest way, nothing is going to improve for the better.

Bangkok Post: Class Sizes at Popular Schools Will Increase by 10% to Accomodate the Big Shots

Class sizes increase to help patrons

Bangkok Post

Schools regard govt policy as impractical

SIRIKUL BUNNAG

Several top public schools plan to increase class sizes for Mathayom Suksa 1 students to take the children of school patrons, after the Education Ministry abolished the patrons' quota.


Prakasit Youngkhong, director of Thepsirin school, said it would increase the number of Mathayom Suksa 1 (Grade 7) students so it could accept the children of its patrons, including senior monks of Wat Thepsirin and members of the school alumni association and teachers and parents association.


The increase would also cover the children of teachers at Thepsirin school and nearby Saipanya school, he added.


The number of students per classroom would be increased from 40 to 45-50.


The school would have 10 classrooms for Mathayom Suksa 1 students, he said.


''We need to extend class sizes to accommodate the children of school patrons, after the 5% school patron quota was abolished by the education minister.


''The no-patrons' children policy is impractical as several schools have established close ties with their patrons who financially support school developments.

''What we can do is to guarantee that we will not demand tea money from our patrons in exchange for seats.

''We will grant seats only to children of those who have helped the school for a long period,'' said Mr Prakasit.

The school will set up a panel comprising senior monks from Wat Thepsirin and members of the teachers and parents association to select children of school patrons, to ensure transparency in the selection process, he said.

The ministry's policy to scrap the admission quota, which reserves seats for children of politicians and wealthy patrons at famous schools, helped reduce pressure from politicians and senior education officials who were not school patrons, said Mr Prakasit.

Somchai Chaopanit, director of Surasak Montri school, said it previously provided a 5% quota for children of military officers who supported it.

As the ministry has scrapped the patron quota, the school would increase class sizes from 40 to up to 50 students per classroom, depending on the number of patrons' children and students who lack places to study.

The school has set its own criteria to select those students.

It will consider students' exam scores, special talents and the location of their homes, which must be in the school neighbourhood.

Their financial status and the amount of cash donations would not be considered, he said.

Education Minister Wijit Srisa-arn said secondary schools could extend class sizes where necessary.

School directors have the authority to approve a class size of up to 45 students.

The directors are required to seek permission from an educational zone supervising them if the number of students per classroom reaches 45-50, and from the Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) for a class of more than 50 students, said Mr Wijit, adding he did not support schools opening new classrooms.

Obec secretary-general Khunying Kasama Voravan na Ayudhya said two or three schools in Bangkok had sought permission to open more classrooms, but the commission has not yet approved the requests.

However, she said new classrooms could be opened if educational zones supplied clear evidence showing that there were no schools in their jurisdiction areas that could provide seats for students in the zones.

The admission of students for new classrooms must be transparent.

Starting from April 1, parents of students who did not pass recent entrance exams to win seats at schools of their choice, or who failed to get a place after the drawing of lots, could contact educational zones in their areas to find schools for their children, she said.

The drawing of lots for students living in school catchment areas will be carried out on April 1.

There is something outrageous about increasing the class size of good schools in order to accommodate the big shots, who will brag to all their big shots friends about the great school they were able to bully themselves into. In typical Thai fashion, these big shots don't seem to get that by increasing the class sizes they are lowering the quality of education for their own children. But why bother with the actual education when you got bragging rights to the brand name school instead.

Why is that we have all the yentas at the culture ministry yapping on and on about the evils of western influences, yet they never seem to harp on those aspects of Thai culture, like patron-client relationships and corruption, that serve nobody except a few assholes at the very top of society. But, then, why would those yentas complain about themselves since they are part of that asshole elite.

50 kids to a classroom? Any teachers read this blog? Why don't you protest this? Teaching is a tough job. Why don't you guys get organized politically and resist these extra burdens?


If you have any teaching in Thailand has "jumped the shark" stories, let me know. I'm willing to link to them.

Thai Junta Undermining Democratic Development: Strips Thai Children of their Right to a Free Education

No promise of free basic education in charter : Education Ministry


The Education Ministry wants the new charter to avoid promising 12 years of "free" basic education in order to stop schools from charging extra fees that often end up costing parents more than the waived tuition.


Education Minister Wijit Srisaan said yesterday that the Education Council had sent him its recommendations for the new constitution, which he would revise before submitting them to the National Legislative Assembly.

Most of the contents were based on the previous charter but adjusted to be briefer and more realistic.

The Education Ministry would propose that Article 43 of the old charter - stipulating that the government shall provide people an equal right to obtain 12 years of basic education with quality and at no charge - be rephrased.

It should say something like the government shall allocate fair and sufficient resources to enable the arrangement of 12 years of basic education with quality and equity, he said.

The old wording contained a loophole that let schools extract money from parents for "extracurricular activities", which often turned out to be ambiguous and even more expensive.

The new version would force the government to find ways to support schools with sufficient resources so they could provide quality education, which should lessen the problem of schools charging parents miscellaneous fees.

Wijit said the ministry had a longstanding regulation that schools could not charge for tuition. Fundraising from parents was acceptable as long as it was voluntary and the proceeds did not pay for regular expenses because it was the government's responsibility to support schools financially.

Even if the new constitution cut the phrase "free of charge" out, schools would still be prohibited by the ministerial regulation from charging tuition fees, he added.

The Nation

What an absolute digrace! I have never worked for the Thai education deparment, but I know many people who have. It is hopelessly corrupt. It is horribly managed by greedy and incompetent bureaucrats, who care more about status, face and their extracurricular fees more than anything else.

During the Thaksin years, how many education ministers were chewed up and spat out by the education bureaucracy? I can't even remember.

I love the Thai solution to this problem. Instead of enforcing the right to a free education, the junta is just going to strip the right away, because that is more convenient.

Why not go after all the bureaucrats who refuse to enforce the law? Why not go after the administrators who are mismanaging their funds? Why not go after those headmasters who are extorting money from the parents?

Why is the Thai media letting these crooks off the hook year after year?

It seems that the intent of the elite in Thai society is to keep the masses poor and disempowered. And when the masses fight for their rights, the elites subdue them with violence and fill their heads with nationalism and royalist propaganda to keep them in line.