Thailand's educational spending highest in the world.

[HHADFan]

http://www.mcot.net/site/content?id=52c ... ea6400011f

BANGKOK, Jan 9 - Thailand's spending on education, representing 4 per cent of gross domestic product or 20 per cent of the national budget, is the highest in the world, according to research findings by Mahidol University.

The National Children and Family Development Institute which conducted the study on Thailand's educational system concluded that spending on fundamental education is as high as Bt35, 000 per person per year while parents have to pay on average Bt25 ,000-35, 000 per student each year for added. extras.

Despite the high expenditure, the country's educational gap - the delivered performance - remains wide and in need of improvement.

This is just stunning. Yes, the expenditure is expressed in terms of GDP, not absolute spending, but it's still a lot of money. Something is deeply, fundamentally wrong.

[HHADFan]

This article is deeply flawed, regardless (or maybe because) of problems in the Thai educational system.

Study hours for Thai students are five times more than countries such as the US and Canada where students spend 600-700 hours in classes while Thai students 2,000-3,600 hours.

It only takes a little simple arithmetic to realize these numbers are BS. 2000 hours per year is a normal 8AM - 5PM job with two weeks vacation.

3600 hours per year would be an absurd level of overtime. It's almost 70 hours per week with no vacation.

(I originally showed the math, but it's boring.)

[Nereus]

My Granddauhgter attends a private english program school. She has a maths class conducted in english, and then she has a "Thai maths" class conducted in Thai. I have asked for an explanation several times without a satisfactory answer, but here it is right here!

[STEVE G]

3600 hours per year would be an absurd level of overtime. It's almost 70 hours per week with no vacation.

I agree that it's rare but it is possible at Thai private schools. The boarding school that my stepson attends in Khorat offers additional schooling everyday into the evening, all day on Saturdays and Sundays and through the holidays. He had some catching up to do when he started their and was probably doing 60 hour weeks with greatly reduced holidays.
I'm sure that there are some Asian parents that are putting their children through that much education.

[HHADFan]

My Granddauhgter attends a private english program school. She has a maths class conducted in english, and then she has a "Thai maths" class conducted in Thai. I have asked for an explanation several times without a satisfactory answer, but here it is right here!

Long ago Sargent told me a story about his stepson's math class. The teacher drew a square. He said the square was one meter per side, therefore the area of the square was four square meters. 1, 2, 3, 4. Four square meters. Sarge had a talk with the teacher.

Even discounting any hyperbole in telling the story, if it was even close to true, it speaks very poorly of the system. How did that guy become a math teacher?

I've seen examples of good education here. I once looked over my stepdaughter's shoulder and saw her working out (by hand with pencil and paper) what looked like a standard deviation. I told her we could throw it into Excel in a minute or less, but she replied that she had to show her work so the teacher knew she understood the formula. That's good. Unfortunately, the problem was from her 'cram' school, not from her regular school.

On the other hand, she's 19 and cannot speak English to me, though she's been studying it for 12 years or more. She reads and writes English just fine. I refuse to speak Thai to her, so I speak English and she speaks Thai. She's not stupid and she's not shy, but no one taught her to speak English. ASEAN integration is just around the corner...

I glanced at the article before I posted it, then I read it. It's probably all BS, but makes its own point by showing how lame a system can be that would publish it - the reporter believed it, the editor approved it, and it went out the door.

[HHADFan]

3600 hours per year would be an absurd level of overtime. It's almost 70 hours per week with no vacation.

I agree that it's rare but it is possible at Thai private schools. The boarding school that my stepson attends in Khorat offers additional schooling everyday into the evening, all day on Saturdays and Sundays and through the holidays. He had some catching up to do when he started their and was probably doing 60 hour weeks with greatly reduced holidays.
I'm sure that there are some Asian parents that are putting their children through that much education.

Yeah, my stepdaughter attended cram schools at night and on weekends - it was expensive and a big hassle. She was shooting for pre-med. She may have broken 2000 hours per year in her last couple of years of high school, but 3600 hours in one year in a classroom? I can't buy it. I doubt she did 2000 hours per year in class, though I'm sure she was doing 60 hours per week including classroom time and homework.

[Spitfire]

It's got sweet FA to do with hours and more to do with content and quality of delivery.

[bsdk1960]

at least they learn to dance for the "childrens day"

[migrant]

It's hard to imagine 3,600 hours. A couple doors down from my office is one of the Korean after hour schools. These have gotten quite popular, and there are students there in the evenings, weekends, and even during school holidays. They had classes the day before, and after, Christmas.

Even with that the sessions appear to be 1/2 day, and then a new batch come in. Lot's of hours, sure, but methinks less than 3,600