Quote:
Originally Posted by Plan B  Quote: |
Originally Posted by November Rain She might not have a valid teaching certificate. She might have no qualifications at all. She might even have a criminal record. She might have been sacked from her last job for some grave misdemeanour | Welcome to the Thai education system. Some schools care not, as long as they have someone standing in front of the class. |
I can attest to that, and add to it as well. I live in a poor farming district. There are 14 villages with primary and secondary schools, some shared by 2 or more villages. One of the most agonizing problems for us non Thai speakers is not being able to communicate when shopping. The clerks are all young and should know English, but they don't. I visit my wifes secondary class often and see her trying to teach grammer to kids who don't have basic English skills, so I started visiting the primary schools to get some answers. Here's what I found:
1. Many Thai teachers seem very complacent. They stand in front of their classes and drone on in a very boring fashion.
2. The kids get bored and don't try to learn but Thai education policy is to pass them anyway.
3. when they enter secondary school they are so far behind they couldn';t learn English if they wanted to.
IMHO, the problems line up thusly:
1. The school Administrator
2. The teachers
3. The inability to fail a student and pass them on to Secondary school.
I have to add here that I speak only from my own experience in a rural district. I do not believe the problem is as bad in some of the larger city schools. I am personal friends with a Thai gentlemen who is head of linguistics at a very large city school. He is the best English teacher I have encountered in Thailand.
Knowing what to teach is easy, knowing how to teach is a very different story.