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dirtydog

Shortage of teachers bad in Bangkok


The national shortage of teachers is most serious in Bangkok and adjacent provinces, according to a study by Chulalongkorn University lecturers.


"This is because there are so many large schools in these provinces," Assoc Prof Chanita Rakponmuang said yesterday.

Chanita has taught at CU's Faculty of Education.

"Countries that are successful in tackling the shortage of teachers are those which put this issue on the national agenda," she said.

According to the study conducted by Chanita and colleagues, state schools need 478,186 teachers for efficient educational services. However, there are now only 396,507 government teachers across the country.

Primary schools required 30,000 more teachers, the study said. Secondary schools needed up to 32,000 more teachers.

"We have collected information from 29,503 schools," Chanita said.

The teacher shortage was most serious in maths, science, technology and foreign-language subjects.
She said the government's policy to restrict the number of civil servants, and the teaching profession's less prestigious image were factors behind the shortage. Teaching today is often associated with low pay and inadequate welfare.

The Nation

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watterinja

Wonder if the thought ever crossed their tiny minds that if they paid a decent wage & treated good foreign, qualified teachers with the respect they deserve, that they could have their pick of the best in the world?

This lot are so stupid it beggars belief.

Marmite the Dog

^ WTF has this got to do with foreign teachers?

watterinja

^ Well, there is not a chance that they will be able to make up the numbers in the required time from Thai stock alone. It takes years to train new teachers.

The only logical conclusion that one can draw is that bodies are needed to fill the gap until locals can be trained. They will not be able to fill the vacancies with foreigners due to the above-mentioned points.

dirtydog

Who are you kidding, I heard it only took a couple of weeks

Dougal

Just close a few of the schools. Sorted!

watterinja

^ Excellent solution - Thai-style.

Fabian

Why, there should be some burmese working for that kind of wages.

Bruce

They could just import a lot more Filipinos to work for low wages (although higher than in The Philippines, it should be noted). After all, that seems to work with nurses.

dirtydog

Why are the Burmese and Phillipinos more intelligent than the Thais? I mean they defineately are, is this due to religion? or are Thais just thick?

The Gentleman Scamp

^ Sandra isn't that intelligent.

kerux

What's the diff? Most of the foreign teachers I worked with in Thailand weren't trained either.

bradthai

i think i am one of the only farang teachers in thailand whose wife earns more than the farang hubby teacher.
47.5 k bht a month.
any non teachers out there in the same boat??.......pattaya people welcome to reply........unless they are mamasans

watterinja

Religion & major in-breading I'd think.

dirtydog

Obvious post of the month award, so what is she doing with an ex fair ground worker

watterinja

Long-term, hard-time?

dirtydog

I think it is about employing properly qualified teachers to work, rather than the 2 day course type teachers.

codefreeze

Couldn't agree more. In fact they wouldn't need to shake things up that much to make things radically more attractive to foreign teachers.

Thailand has to move to a knowledge economy - it just isn't going to be able to cut it as a low-cost manufacturing centre for much longer. They aren't going to be able to generate enough skilled people without foreign help.

Seems they just don't want to give too much to foreigners. Cutting their nose off to spite their face comes to mind.

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Codefreeze,

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Little Chuchok

Is that a rhetorical question?

watterinja

Excellent post.

The problem I've come across is that, in general, the SE. Asian mind is not suited to Physics (5% capability), or Mathematics (30% capability) weighting. This means that they will not ever be capable of generating any sustainable number of home-grown engineers & technicians. They can never become like Japan - never. They will be destined to continue to be parts-makers, unless they can really come to grips with what it is that Thais can really excel at.

They've done pretty well as Asia's whorehouse - but, long-term sustainable income will be required as they destroy their tourist sites. For this, they need the input from abroad - constantly.