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dirtydog

Rounded teachers needed

Education reform must start with well-rounded teachers and improvements in educational personnel, enabling them to make good use of technology, Education Minister Wijit Srisa-arn said yesterday.

Many teachers were "lost" focusing on obtaining a degree but had no spirit, he said.

Giving a speech on "Teachers and Quality Improvement of Thai Education" yesterday at Bangkok's Royal River Hotel, Wijit said educational efforts to enable Thais to compete with others in the globalised age must start with teacher and personnel reform so that they could meet high professional standards.

The reform should also ensure that teachers have career advancement and security as well as social and economic status that was not inferior to other professions.

Improvement in teaching meant having educational quality assurance both inside and outside educational institutions, he said.

The Office of National Educational Standards and Quality Assessment was currently responsible for this area, but its recent assessment on schools and institutions revealed that most schools had failed.

Student achievements were unsatisfactory, as seen from the Ordinary National Educational Test results, especially in Thai language, which only had a 50 per cent pass rate, he said.

One problem in regard to the quality of teachers was the common misconception that any bachelor degree holder could teach students well, but degree holders with "no vision and spirit" were not useful, the minister said.

Many have complained that work teachers undertake in order to climb the Academic Rank Classification (ARC) system was not beneficial to students and saw them abandon their key mission of teaching children, he said.

As a result, the ministry would evaluate the work that teachers do for promotion based on benefit to students, and would reflect on quality teaching and ensure the ARC system was not merely a promotion for civil service positions.

The most immediate problem was the shortage of teachers, especially in small schools. Wijit said the ministry had assigned the Basic Education Commission to find a solution to that problem before submitting a report to the Cabinet in October.

As for teachers who were teaching subjects that did not match their educational background, Wijit said they would be sent to improve their knowledge of English, maths and the sciences.

Wijit said technology could be a useful aid if teachers knew how to utilise it. But he said no technology could totally replace teachers, and urged them to learn how to use technology in class - and not just stick with "talk and chalk".

"What we must seriously think about is developing learning through computers and develop lessons with appropriate content," he said.

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kingwilly

What a lot of fluff in that article, says everything and also nothing.

NickA

Might help if they were teaching less than 70 students and were allowed to assess them fairly.... I think a lot of Thai teachers just give up after a while

Wallace

Is this article suggesting that anyone in Thailand with a degree is allowed to teach in schools? It's not surprising the whole system's a mess.

Even in Laos they have teacher training colleges.

ceburat

They also have teacher training here. One year of study for a teaching certificate. If you go on for a second year, you receive the master degree in education.

What I don't understand about the Thai system is - you have a BA in math and then get a masters in english. Or said another way - you have a four year degree and then go on for two or three more years and get a masters in a subject not related to the first degree. That does not make sense to me.

panama hat

Well, we're looking for a part-time admin person and one of the pre-requisites is a good command of English . . . posted it at english-faculties universities and colleges - - - and I am astonished at the shocking level of respondents . . . and I'm not talking about students

MagicLeaves

I agree with this - yet for foreign Teflers the degree in any subject is still deemed necessary for the work permit - the ability to speak 4 languages, have a proper Tefl Cert. and years of experience counts for shit in this regard here.
what a joke