500 top teachers to attend English course run by British Council

Teerakiat Jareonsettasin, deputy education minister, accompanied by Michael David Selby, his adviser, presided over the project launch on Tuesday. Teerakiat said the six-week training programme would be held next March and April.

Selby said the programme would require 500 Thai teachers, who also had good English skills, to communicate only in English with 50 foreign mentors/trainers from the British Council, who also have teaching experience in various different countries. Besides improving their English skills, the teachers would learn new teaching techniques. The top 50 Thai teachers selected from this training course would also serve as trainers for the next generation of teachers, Selby added.

After the teachers return to their respective schools, Teerakiat said, a follow-up assessment would be conducted during the first semester of the 2016 academic year. This performance review will show if the teachers can manage their classes better and if their English-language teaching methods had improved – in comparison with their peers who did not attend the training. 

If the project proves successful, the ministry will announce it as a policy for the second semester of the academic year. If it is not, they will adjust the training programme to eradicate flaws until it becomes successful before declaring it a policy.

The selection of teachers to attend the programme required test results of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) from the Office of Basic Education Commission, Teerakiat explained. 

Only six of the teachers passed the exam in the Mastery Level C2 (very close to native speakers), |while 900 other teachers obtained the Vantage Level |B2 and the Effective Operational Proficiency Level C1, |he revealed. The method of training the selected teachers is being formulated, he said.