Although Thai students spend longer hours in school compared with their peers in other countries, their academic performance is less than satisfactory, as suggested in the results of the Ordinary National Education Test. A Thailand Development Research Institute survey shows that Thai teachers usually spend 84 days per year outside the classroom carrying out work-related obligations such as research papers to get promotions.
On average Thai students spend 1,000 hours per year in a classroom, compared with 800 hours by their peers in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. But a Thai teacher only spends about 600 hours a year interacting with students.
In short, Thai students have to spend long hours in school, but it is questionable if our students get quality time or receive proper attention from their teachers to enable them to excel academically. Inadequate resource management was once blamed for Thailand’s poor-quality schooling system. But that is no longer the case. The Education Ministry now receives the biggest chunk of the national budget — the education budget doubled in the past 10 years and teachers’ salaries have risen accordingly.
However, the rise of remuneration for educators has failed to produce any significant change. The academic ranking of Thai students in general is lower than in nearby countries such as Singapore and Malaysia. This is without taking into account Thai students’ poor proficiency in English — some Thai schools use the excuse that English is not our native language. In general, Thai students perform poorly. Some students from the best schools may receive good scores in maths and science, but the majority of Thai pupils are lagging behind.
Decision-makers have said the country’s ongoing educational reform focuses on teacher quality. But the approaches, aimed at improving academic capacity, have misfired. For instance, an inefficient process used to evaluate teachers can result in a nightmare for students. The Education Ministry is trying to improve the quality of teachers by using a performance assessment approach. However, the TDRI has found that the indicators to assess teachers’ performances are not conducive for teachers to improve their work. The survey shows that the academic performance of students accounts for only 3% when considering a career promotion for a teacher, while 13% depends on the teacher’s academic research.
Therefore, many teachers prefer to spend more time outside the classroom producing research papers to advance their careers than interacting with students in the classroom. As the TDRI research has shown, of the 84 days a year that a teacher spends outside the classroom, they spend half that time on activities relating to quality assessments for their career paths.
In fact, being a teacher is one of the most desirable jobs these days because of a significant rise in benefits compared with their predecessors 10 years ago. In 2014, a total of 100,000 candidates applied to become teachers on the government payroll. Only two or three in every 100 would be recruited.
However, the teachers’ competitive examination fails to recruit real talent. The generic written teachers’ test fails to determine whether each applicant has teaching ability or the right attitude to teach. In addition, the recruitment process is centralised, even though each school should have a say on what kind of teachers it wants for their pupils.
The result: Thailand has several tens of thousands of teachers, yet it lacks qualified teachers for specific subjects such as English, maths and science. In many schools, especially those in remote areas, one teacher has to teach many subjects, even ones where they may not have specific skills.
Quality teaching does not depend on the number of hours a student spends in the classroom, but the interaction between teachers and their pupils. Teachers should not only transfer academic knowledge to students, but also life skills to help them transition from childhood to adulthood.
However, many teachers cannot pay attention to individual students because classrooms are too big. For instance, the majority of public schools have about 50 students per class. Some teachers are assigned to be responsible for administration as part of their career promotions, reducing their time with students in the classroom. These things are all bad news for the pupils.
Students are entitled to a good education, not being stuck in bad schooling. Therefore, bring teachers back to school to provide the best supportive environment for the students. Every single minute of 1,000 hours a year should provide them with a good learning experience. Our students’ time is too precious. We should not waste it.