Automatic granting of teaching licences to continue

The council had initially decided to cancel the automatic granting of teaching licences to graduates from next year, as it aimed to test each graduate before deciding if they should be conferred a teaching licence. 
However, the council scrapped the plan after taking into account the fact that five-year teacher-training programmes will soon be extinct anyway. From next year, all teacher-training programmes will be cut back to four years only. 
“The Teachers’ Council board has resolved that tests should be required for those seeking a teaching licence from 2023 instead. Let’s focus on graduates from the soon-to-be introduced four-year programme,” Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin said yesterday.
Wattanaporn Ra-Ngubtook, deputy secretary-general of the Education Council, said a subcommittee had proposed that tests for teaching licences be postponed for now. 
“The licence is automatically granted partially because the five-year programme is extensive enough,” she said. 
Deputy Education Minister Dr Udom Kachintorn said all teacher-training institutes were now adjusting their curriculum to match the four-year timeframe. 
The move to shorten the programme is in line with the Education Ministry’s policy, which believes a shorter course is necessary to keep pace with the changing world. 
This move is undoing the trend that Thailand has embraced since 2004, when the five-year teacher-training programme was launched in the hope of boosting the quality of teachers and enhancing the prestige of the profession. 
Dr Teerakiat said the Teachers’ Council had also recently approved a draft regulation on teachers’ standards. 
“The draft covers up-to-date knowledge, experience, work experience and behaviour,” he said. 
For instance, it requires that all teachers have knowledge of changes in the world and the nation, have teaching experience of at least one year and a good relationship with students’ parents and communities.