Education standards rather dismal

Renowned international schools, second-tier private schools, commercial colleges and even private universities often do not deliver what is expected. Examples can be found throughout Thailand, but the focus here will be Hua Hin.

My stepdaughter was enrolled in a private school until recently. She often came to me with questions concerning her homework. I found her English and math books containing wrong “examples”. Even more disconcerting were the homework questions asked that even I as a native English speaker couldn’t decipher. Many times her correct answers were marked wrong because they were different from the teacher’s answer book. My wife met the teacher and learned that nothing could be done. Only the answer book is correct.

Moreover, at the end of last term the teacher was so overwhelmed with grading homework for her 40 or so students that she marked weeks of homework correct in one day. I’m sure that looked good on her resume.

The daughter of a good friend was enrolled in a prestigious, international school. This youngster was good at maths, but like all students, she made mistakes. Miraculously she overcame that hurdle and scored perfect grades, one after another. Her father became suspicious and contacted her teacher. The headmaster had told the teachers that good reviews depended on good grades, and that is what the board wanted. This resulted in perfect papers not just for her, but for a number of other students also. My friend pulled his daughter out of that school the same day.

My niece attended a “commercial college”. Besides the usual mistakes in her textbooks there was a glaring problem. I looked over her shoulder one evening as she was doing her homework and found she was copying answers directly from the book. When I told her that this was plagiarism and that her answers should be thought out, her reply was, “If I do it that way the teacher will mark it wrong”.

There is a university in Hua Hin, Cha-am that offers an American degree in Thailand. Yes, it most certainly does. However, the reality is that money has taken over as the primary motivation instead of intellectual integrity. To increase student numbers, admission standards have been lowered to the point where some students cannot even write a coherent paragraph. And these are not students enrolled in the English as a Second Language programme, but are in the main stream. Academic Probation exists in name only. In reality, some students have been on probation for more than two years without being able to raise their GPA, but they are still in school. Plagiarism is rampant as there is no school policy to deal with it.

This institution touts itself as an American University. Yet not one person in the administration is American. The top officials are East Asians. Twenty-three professors have either resigned or been relieved of their jobs over the last three and a half years because of questioning the aforementioned policies or lack thereof.

Thailand will face a serious challenge over the next few years, as Asean grows stronger and more integrated. Education will be key, when it comes to deciding who takes the lead. It is no secret that in Thailand change can be slow. Education officials are moved around, rote-learning methods are still being used, critical thinking is discouraged and private institutions look more toward profit than educational excellence. One has to ask: can Thailand possibly rise to the forefront of the new social, economic, and political realities that are only a few short years away?

A Klukowski

Hua Hin