This is what newspapers wrote about Thai education 10 years ago:
– When the secretary-general of the Basic Education Commission (BEC) made public the National Test results for Prathom 2 for the year 2003, it was disclosed that 12% of the tested students could not read or write in Thai (half of the students were from the southernmost provinces). Reasons given for the poor results are: poverty (which triggers class absence), learning disabilities, shortage of teachers, and no practice of the Thai language at home.
In 2002, the adult illiteracy rate in Thailand was 4.17% of people ages 15 and above. The figures were pretty good, compare to its Southeast Asian neighbours: Indonesia – 12.13%, Malaysia – 11.64%, Singapore – 7.16%, Vietnam – 7.15%, and the Philippines – 4.64%.
In front of Thai students at an English camp (2003)
– “Proficient [Thai] teachers” will receive an addition of 3,500 baht on top of their monthly salary. At the end of this 13-month scheme aimed at improving teachers’ quality of life, the ministry may not have enough funds to make the final three monthly payments. So, how do we solve the problem? Oh, that’s easy. Let’s drop the whole scheme! Anyway, there are concerns that the extra money will only benefit the teachers and not their students in terms of academic quality! How can anybody say that? They should know that when teachers are happy they perform better in front of the class? To pay or not to pay? That is the question.
– A recent study showed that public libraries fail to meet administration standards. Why? Lack of MONEY! You can’t do proper education without money!!!! There also seems to be a problem with people (or better, the lack of people) visiting public libraries.
– 292 public schools volunteered to be put under the control of local authorities in the hope of getting adequate funding. But, the Education Ministry approved the transfer of only 10. Why? The government wants to maintain the academic standards. What? The government should rather try to improve the academic standards.
Today: 10 years later, the situation is almost the same. Low scores in the national tests, no funds for schools, no readers in libraries, and the education in the southernmost provinces of Thailand is deterioration as an alarming rate.
Will it be the same in another 10 years’ time?
This article is spot on Voicu. I was curious though about this – “Proficient [Thai] teachers” will receive an addition of 3,500 baht on top of their monthly salary. At the end of this 13-month scheme aimed at improving teachers’ quality of life, the ministry may not have enough funds to make the final three monthly payments.” What scheme is this please?
I wrote about the library issue in my book- “Although, I have been mostly happy with the level of facilities and support in my time teaching in Thailand, this has not always been so. I remember when I had returned from a short stint in Japan and was looking for some teaching work. I recall going for an interview at a school near Pinklao. It was also a teachers’ training college as I remember. I was with my English girlfriend at the time, who had proffered certificates from a college in Oxford. Not the Oxford you understand, as in Oxford University, but another one in the same city. The principal of the college, the interviewer, a Dean no less, picked up her degree certificate and looked at it like it was a map to secret treasure, the way Japanese people look at newly acquired business cards at a first meeting. We knew we had the job right there and then. For him, the word ‘Oxford’ was like having the key to a new world. We got a tour of the college and a tour of the library. The only problem here was that there weren’t all that many books. I remember picking up a copy of Byron’s poetry and a book about how to mend a punctured tyre. The rest of the books, and there weren’t that many, were all in Thai. “
If I remember well, the government was trying to make teaching a more attractive job for Thai graduates. Also, many Thai teachers were in debt and they hoped the extra money would help.