The Thai-TESOL held at the province of KhonKaen opened up on Thursday, the 24th of January with a talk by Dr. Tong-in Wongsathorn, Adviser to the Minister of Education of Thailand. Dr. Wongsathorn outlined Thailand’s policies in English education, which include,
(1) Use of English as the main medium of instruction for the whole hour of English classes.
(2) Expand and support English program Schools and Mini-English program schools with special attention given to schools where poor students enroll.
(3) Provide special remuneration for English teachers who have demonstrated their high English language abilities and effective teaching.
In relation to these policies and to Thailand’s aim to elevate the standard of English teaching in the country, on March 4, 2008, the First National Testing of Primary School by the National Institute of Educational Testing Service will take place.
At present, the average test score in the whole country is only 30% out of a hundred. And among the top ten provinces, Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Songkhla are on the top three.According to Dr. Wongsathorn, one thing common to these top three provinces is the fact that they are tourist places, thus, the citizens there have more chances to speak English to foreigners.
“Camps” therefore, according to Dr. Wongsathorn, “are very important to students” because they provide opportunities to speak English outside the class.
There is also a movement in Thailand’s education on the provision of materials for English language teaching, but not only limited to printed text, but should also include e-books and the Internet, to keep abreast of latest technology .
Dr. Wongsathorn made a special point regarding the now so popular MP3 players, and the potential they bring to English language development in Thailand. In the past, a PE teacher called on to substitute for a language teacher would have been at a loss as to what to do in the classroom. But nowadays, with the advent of all these technological tools, a PE teacher could make use of the children’s MP3’s and have them listen to an English program.
So seeing these connections between policy and actual practice, where then does this lead in terms of the Filipino teaching force? Well, there is one good news, according to Alan Mackenzie, ELT Development manager for the British Council in Thailand. Presently, there is a need for at least 50,000 English language teachers, especially in primary education in the country.
However, since the thrust of the education policy in Thailand is to get Thai students to speak in English more, it is only fitting that schools are after native speaking English teachers as a priority. On the other hand, since there are Filipinos who speak English well and have proven themselves to be qualified and/or experienced, that leaves room for Filipinos still to get hired as teachers in Thailand.
So now that we know there is a need for teachers in Thailand, how do we compete and ensure a higher potential to get hired compared to our Caucasian or fellow Asian counterparts?
One obvious course to follow, is to get better at what we do, which could only happen through continued education. There is a “but” that comes thereafter, however, because of the atrociously high fees one has to shell out money for, to be in the graduate programs in Thailand.
A next option is to look into our existing graduate programs in the Philippines, which could be done by distance learning. Of course, to say that the former option would have been more appealing is already a given, as we are yet to establish our competency as educators of teachers to the rest of the world.
Another option we have as a group is to keep abreast of current issues and sound practice in education through journals, magazines, ezines, and avenues of ideas exchange such as Siam Pinoy, where you can discuss online certain topics related to teaching with fellow Pinoy’s whose experiences teaching in Thailand prove to be an invaluable source of information.
By Hedda Tan
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