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[Serious_Fun]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/per-cent-of-thailands-teachers-fail-own-subject/story-e6frf7jx-1225877646775

[Pauleddy]

Reams have been written about this.

It's chicken-and-egg.

The Thai education system has been "corrupt" for decades. Self-perpetuates.

It goes something like this---

Little Somchai hails from a middle-class family, or "higher". In junior school, he is not encouraged to think for himself, and learns by rote. Because of Dad's standing or contacts, he is selected for a high-end high school--OR, Dad pays tea-money to the "school", or even pays the high fees for a really posh school. At the high school, all kids pass all exams (the foreign teachers are told to pass all the kids, and ANYWAY, cheating and copying are "normal"). Somchai, because of his background and the fact that he went to a posh school, gets accepted at a "posh" university. If he has done reasonably well, this could be Chula or Mahidol...or, possibly, Dad pays for Assumption or a private uni.

Somchai is a posh kid. Whichever uni he attends, he will arrive there in his Mini Cooper, wearing his Tod shoes. He will find that everyone else there is like him, and that girls are more interesting than class. He will also find that he can "slack" for most courses and that he can copy the homework essay from his pals. He will be briefed about which Thai teachers are completely lax, and even allow him to copy essays from internet. Those teachers came up through the same system and are posh too. They have Benzes and diamonds. The idea of meritocracy is alien.

He will find out that maybe, 1 or 2 Western teachers are stricter, but that most of the time, courses are structured so that it is hard to fail just so long as you do the minimum. All the time, of course, Dad's name is important AND (the big caveat)--Losing Face is completely reprehensible to Thais. If the boy is going to bring shame or embarrassment to himself, the Dad, the Profs, the Uni, anyone...then the onus will be on pulling out all of the stops to save face. This means that marks may be adjusted, or even strict teachers fired (I have seen this).

The system is 99% geared to making the kid pass. If the kid doesn't pass, then word gets out that you shouldn't send your kid to that 200.000baht a year place.

Later, the kid finds that he can do a 1-year MA or MBA within the same non-meritocratic system. He pays, and copies most of the essays. Later, he could even do his PhD...but this can be done in four years. He can do this in Thailand, or else in Bluff College, Idaho...but it is not stringent and can be part-plagiarised and some palms greased, especially if it is confined to a very narrow field and the supervisors are really older versions of himself.

Five years later, we find Dr. Somchai as a teacher or prof. He has climbed the greasy pole. He now has a Mercedes. Because of family ties, the mafia non-meritocracy, the pressure to pass the kids, his status, and the intense antipathy to losing face, his nice weekend condo in HuaHin, etc--Dr Somchai is not about to throw this all out. He is quite happy to perpetuate the whole shebang. In fact, he knows no different. "Education" has little value in the real world, and is related to status, elitism and all the other self-perpetuating hierarchy stuff.

If he does get pounced on and asked (maybe anonymously) to sit a 3 hour "western" exam in Math, English or whatever his field is...then he and 80% of his peers will fail. Because the whole edifice is built on this pie-in-sky stuff where nothing is "earned" or "real".

Yes, there are exceptions. Yes, yes, western education is also devalued and blah blah.

The deep or long-term result is that the system, and ignorance, are perpetuated. 20 years ago, people moaned on here: the moans don't change. The overall effect is to devalue Thailand and Thai society. The MA from a Thai uni is worth little outside of Thailand.

The whole caboodle just goes on. Vicious circle, vicious cycle.

Eddy

[Mrs McClusky]

That seriously DOESN'T shock me. I taught social studies having never studied it.

[roguegrafix]

LOL! My first serious job in Thailand was to write a PhD thesis for a Thai lecturer for a Japanese university. I'm a qualified geologist and the subject was sociology. Not knowing a thing, I got a heap of books and spent 3 months reading. I then spent about 3 years writing and researching an entire PhD for my lecturer about changing values in Thai society. Fascinating stuff but still pretty first grade level. I even convinced my lecturer's Japanese supervisor (who obviously didn't know about me) to stop being a committed Marxist and to do a 180 degree take on his views on sociology. The crowning moment was, was when I designed a 3-D theoretical framework of Thai society (over about 6 cans of beer). According to my lecturer, the supervisor had tears in his eyes at the "beauty" of the thing. Ha ha ha.

Eddie's right about how Thais view education. There is a quote by Neils Mulder (a German sociologist who has lived in Thailand for about 40 years) which goes something like: Education is viewed as a plaque on the wall. Once having attained the degree, Thais do not seek to delve further. One does not ask questions of Ajarns because they know. Their degree assures them of that.

I teach at a rural university. The best I hope for is to get my students to question things. I teach the book, Animal Farm, and try to show them that this story of politics is happening today (right now in fact). Some get it, most don't. But the few that do, it is very satisfying. I once asked the class, what animal in the book they wanted to be. A few said, the pigs, one or two Boxer etc. Then I asked them, what animal they really are in Thai society, and they answered "The Sheep." Was that a win?

[Knexus]

Here's maybe some of the reason why there was such a high failure rate... Labor law in Thailand, when it comes to teachers, makes some special exceptions. If Thai teachers fail a test they don't have to be paid more. Pensions are almost exclusively up to contract negotiation, and many of us should be familiar with that process... The government schools further have "their" own restrictions and rules. Maybe that is one reason, but I can't excuse how my Thai teachers will get up in the middle of class (or even their teaching!) to answer their cellphones, discuss their side jobs, or straight up gossip (sometimes in the room while I am trying to teach!). We should also consider who made the test? Was the test checked by an independent org? Who did the follow up? Did the teachers have time to prepare (didn't you have time to prepare for your PRAXIS?)? So, speaking of tests...

I would be more worried about the tests the government forces people to take if they want to have a pension on their government job. From what I've heard about it so far, it's a general knowledge test, but there is also a core of "current events". These current events are "global news", but it sounds more like it is "news" in Thailand. The questions are multiple choice, and one example I was given was something like "What did the Red shirts want during their protests". Can that really be summed up in 4 multiple choice answers (which the point of multiple choice is that one is right - I'm assuming - so what's the "right" answer?) put down by the government in power?

I am gravely concerned about the weedy influence of notoriously corrupt Thai politics sneaking their way into classrooms. My students spout in papers about the paternal love or righteousness politician X has in the interest of the Thai people. The one thing I can agree with the Thais who have the nerve to speak critically (good or bad) about their government MOD EDIT

If the monarchy loses influence then it's up to the "democratically" elected officials. The same officials who put on tests forcing people to put their names next to a multiple choice answer about political beliefs proven to be fatal if one is on the wrong side of the government in power.

SO, what does that mean for us and those considering teaching in Thailand? Well I'd like to think we should be more considerate of "tests" in Thailand, and not let our unfortunate experiences with Thai teachers/Thai culture poison development in this developing country. Our governments and institutions pretty generally DO encourage free thought and anti-corruption sentiment. We should be more worried about our own ability to share those values with our students (or at least keep them strong within us) if the government goes nuts.

[Mr. Kalgukshi]

Twp inappropriate and off-topic postings have been deleted and another edited.

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