Thai teachers fail high-school tests

[Roel]

Thai teachers fail high-school tests
05:55 AM Jun 10, 2010
High school test results in Thailand have revealed a failure rate of over 80 per cent in mathematics, biology and computer studies - among the teachers.

Their failure rates in their own subjects were about 88 per cent for computer studies, 84 per cent for mathematics, 86 per cent in biology and 71 per cent in physics.

Almost 95 per cent of about 37,500 secondary school directors did not score a pass mark in English and technology.

Over 84,000 teachers and school directors took the exams.

"Even teachers fail, so how can we raise the quality of students?" asked Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat. AFP

Thought: no comment

[Spitfire]

That's high, and I'm fairly cynical about this sort of stuff. I suppose it's a result of the no fail policy that prevails in so many places and the rampant plagiarism that so obviously exists amongst students.

The fact that so many private schools and colleges etc are run as businesses to maximise baht intake at the expense of education that is correctly graded to the standard of the student rather than for image presentation of the institution also has something to do with it, probably a fair few other contributing factors too.

As for the school directors, well, then they are a great example of grafting (jobs for the boys) their way to their postitions, certainly not done by merit/ability.

However, even having said all that, the figure are.....well......dismal. Pretty damning report there Roel.

Strange comment from the Education Minister, almost sounds like the begining of a rhetorical question where he's going to supply the answer but it appears he hasn't a clue and needs the answer . Well, he's not going to like the solution to that problem.

[Roel]

Saw that it was already mentioned in the Bangkok Post two days ago:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/life/educati ... n-subjects

[nanyang]

Well, he's not going to like the solution to that problem.

Presumably, you're suggesting a solution exists.

[Spitfire]

Was a stacked with sarcasm a bit, must admit, but it probably falls into the section of "Can't see the wood for the trees" or "Not in the present physical/social environment we occupy".

So, yes, there is an answer, but it might as well exist in the next galaxy, that's how realistically realisable it is.

Always nice to have comments from fellow cynics on this matter.

[Vital Spark]

I'm going to be on the teachers' side here (for a change) as I know that some of the tests written by Thais for Thais can be unbelievably difficult and a lot of the answers are ambiguous.

I'd love to see a copy of the test, which would obviously be multiple choice, before making any kind of comment about the abilities of the teachers.

Our university has a Faculty of Education and (I'm told) the English ability of the teachers who graduate is pretty good. I've also met teachers in rural areas who teach English (amongst numerous other subjects) and, quite frankly, their English is terrible.

Some of my current students, who speak superb English, want to be teachers - but not at schools. The salary and perks are way below what they'd expect as an English major. They want to teach at university, where they teach 10 contact hours a week, and have the opportunity to get sponsored to study for a PhD abroad.

If the government paid primary and secondary school teachers a higher salary, then they'd get better qualified staff. You pay peanuts....

VS

[nanyang]

Our university has a Faculty of Education and (I'm told) the English ability of the teachers who graduate is pretty good. I've also met teachers in rural areas who teach English (amongst numerous other subjects) and, quite frankly, their English is terrible.

Ambiguities are, clearly, not exclusive to Thais.