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http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-985267

By Sivarnee | Posted June 8, 2013 | Bangkok, Thailand

The Thai Education System is One of the Worst in S.E. Asia and is Worsening Every Year

I taught in the Thai education system for more than three years and during this time learned quickly how bad the education system in Thailand really is.

Plagued by inadequate funding, huge class sizes (more than 50 students to a class), terrible teacher training, lazy students and a system that forces teachers to pass students even though they've actually failed - there doesn't seem to be much hope education in Thailand will improve any time soon.

I taught in a private bi-lingual school, so had many less problems than exist in government schools. Even here though, the school falls under Ministry of Education bureaucracy, which is one of the most ridiculously inept in the world. Rules change every semester, new guidelines are handed down to teachers regarding course content, lesson plans, testing etc at the beginning of each new semester, then change again the following semester.

Teachers are told to pass students, even though they've failed, and a blind eye is turned to serious problems like plagiarizing.

Every year, the Ministry of Education brings into effect another bright idea for improving education in Thailand. This year's bright idea is to force every Western teacher teaching in Thailand to take a Thai Culture course.

Regardless that many teachers have been here for years and are well-versed in Thai culture, in order to get a teacher's license or renew one, they will be forced to take this course.

As the course costs between $110 and $300, money that has to be paid by the teacher, many teachers are saying they will not do it. I already know of two excellent teachers who have left Thailand to go to Korea and Japan to teach instead.

In most other countries in South East Asia, Western teachers are paid more, it's easier to get work permits with less hoops to jump through, and the Ministry of Education in these countries is much more forward thinking. Thailand already has problems getting and keeping good, qualified Western teachers.

Implementing this new law will simply mean even more of these teachers will go elsewhere.

In most countries, government organizations are known to not be particularly effective. The Ministry of Education in Thailand though, is the worst government organization I have ever dealt with.

When I was teaching at my last school, I was approached for help in English grammar one day by the Thai computer teacher who was very upset because he'd just been chastised by a representative from the Ministry of Education.

The Ministry representative had seen some work he had been doing with the kids and had told him very rudely that he should make sure the English wording on the kids' Mother's Day greeting cards was correct. This coming from a representative of an organization that routinely sends forms in English to Western teachers that don't have even one grammatically correct English sentence on them.

Some of them were so unintelligible my boss would just chuck them in the nearest garbage can.

Thailand is now facing a crisis in education.

Thai students are not taught to think for themselves so have no critical thinking skills. At government schools, more than 50 students in a class is the norm.

Half the kids just sleep through class, as the teacher doesn't notice if they're listening or not. Books are limited, science equipment doesn't exist in a lot of schools, and Western teachers in government schools are often the dregs of society.

But as the schools can't afford to pay more than $750 a month, they get what they pay for. (Many of these 'teachers' are old men without college degrees who simply came to Thailand because of the Thai women, then ended up teaching as it's one of the few jobs Westerners are allowed to do).

In order to try to solve the problem of unqualified Western teachers, Thailand is now clamping down on tourist visas. These unqualified teachers cannot get work permits so they live here on tourist visas, leaving the country and renewing them every 3 months.

Now it's going to be more difficult to do this. However, the only thing this new tourist visa restriction will do is to penalize the true tourist to Thailand. The guys who are getting them illegally, will just choose to stay in Thailand illegally, so nothing will change.

Meanwhile, education in countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Korea and China is improving in leaps and bounds. Thailand is set to fall to the bottom of the pile of southeastern Asian countries both educationally and economically, yet the government and the Education Ministry wastes their time on ridiculous new rules, instead of a more common sense way of dealing with things.

Firstly, if the government simply mandated that a college degree and a TEFL certificate were the basic qualifications to teach in Thailand, this would rid them of most of the Western men here who aren't qualified to teach. Secondly, if they increased teacher salaries for both Thais and Westerners, they would get better qualified teachers.

As it stands right now, Thai schools pay the exact same low wages they did when I came here five years ago.

Yet prices in the last five years have gone up more than 20%. Thirdly, if the government made getting a work permit easy for qualified individuals, instead of the mess it is now, teachers would come here and would stay.

But at the moment, you can get a visa, work permit and a better paying job in Korea, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Japan. So why come to Thailand?

However, things are not likely to change in Thailand any time soon. Thai society is all about saving face and appearance is everything. The Ministry never listens when it's given advice by teachers who know better than them what Thai education needs.

And as long as the way a kid looks is more important than what the kid knows, Thailand's education system is a lost cause. Thailand will continue to fall further behind in the education game and the better Western teachers will continue to leave.

But hey, who cares, at least the kids look cute when they're all parading around in their Scouts uniforms. Just a pity less than 10% can actually speak more than 20 words of English correctly and a lot of them aren't very good at Thai either.

Source: Cassandra James (UK & US Writer/ Teacher/ Academic Lecturer) www.inebnetwork.org

[MaiPenRai]

While I agree with most of this description of the Thai education system there are a few issues I have with it:

First, let me say that I think that many Thais know exactly what is wrong with the system, but they do very little to pressure the government to make efficient changes. You dont see teachers out rallying at the steps of the MOE for better conditions like you see with the farmers. I really dont know why. Most likely fear of repercussions from government (teachers are government employees unlike farmers) and this ridiculous sense of duty.

Second I believe that those in charge know exactly what is wrong, but they understand that an under-educated populous is much easier to control and therefore it is easier to take advantage of them.

Without number 1, number 2 will never change.

[Pytheas]

As you say most parents in Thailand know what's wrong with the system, and they do do something about it, they send their kids to extra classes. It also must be remembered that Thai culture works differently, you are employed on what school you went to rather than what you learn there. So parents will be happy to send (bribe their kids) into a school with a name that provide no education and send them to extra classes to learn.

Also education is role specific. You go to a country school in the rice fields there is no education at them, lots of patriotism, discipline, royal brainwashing, military training and unquestioning obedience to your betters without question. That's all a kid who's going to be a rice farmer needs. Meanwhile the rich send their kids to International School and learn the British or US curriculum in English, specific training for the best jobs.

Last year there was a report where parents were survey as to their main complaint about schools. The overwhelming result was they thought were run for the benefit of the teachers not the children. Having taught as a 'best school in the province' I can only agree. This 'best school in the province' was 50/60 to a class, decrepit windowless classrooms with barely standing desks, teachers didn't turn up no-one noticed or cared, lessons a person droning through a mike at the head of the class to classes of half sleeping students. However there were parties for the teachers, everything free including the booze, trips overseas free for teachers, in the summer holidays all the teachers in the whole school taken for an all expenses paid week on an island. But they couldn't even afford to put a lick of paint on the classroom wall apparently.

Oh yes while I was there we also got the education minister's bright idea of that year. All IT, Maths and Science classes should be taught in English as from the new academic year. The reason for these bright idea comes from the unification of ASEAN education systems which is scheduled for 2016, for the last 6 or 7 years there has been an annual conference to assess how this is going as for this to work all systems of all member countries must be brought in line. Each year Thailand finished bottom, and the gap between Thailand and over countries is growing not shrinking. So basically, Lao, Cambodia and Burma are surpassing Thailand in every way. To the Thai mind this is so humiliating, hence the panic hair brain schemes which always seem to get launched the day after the conference.