Thailand says a 'new breed' educators needed to lift schools

Government to spend B4billion baht on new teaching staff

Newspaper section: Newsa budget of over 4 billion baht as part of the government's education reforms.

30,000 new teachers. Varakorn Samkoset, chairman of the Education Reform Committee's sub-panel on national education, said his panel will push for a second phase of a project to produce a new breed of qualified and determined teachers.

Under the plan, 4.23 billion baht will be spent on turning out five batches of teachers for the academic years 2011 to 2015, he said.

These teachers will be drawn from two groups - those selected for a five-year teaching course at universities, and graduates from specific fields such as physics, chemistry, biology, Thai and social science - to take a teaching course for one-and-a-half-years.

There will be 17,500 teachers from the first group and 12,500 teachers from the second group.

After completing their education, those who join the scheme will be employed as permanent teachers, said Mr Varakorn. Special allowances will be given to teachers who show an interest in working at schools in the strife-torn deep South.

The cabinet earlier approved a first phase of the project to produce 6,600 teachers from 2009 to 2011.

A total of 24 universities took part in the scheme to screen students who gained a certificate in teacher professional training with a grade point average (GPA) of 3 and above.

They will be employed as state teachers without taking the usual competitive examination.

About 2,000 recipients of the first phase will be hired as teachers in the next academic year, he said.

He is confident the two phases will produce a total of 36,600 new teachers in the next 10 years to fill vacancies following the retirement of teaching personnel.

About 188,000 out of 450,000 teachers at public schools nationwide are due to retire in the next 10 years.

His sub-panel would draw up guidelines to improve the quality of teachers nationwide, including finding ways to strengthen the education faculties at all universities as 38% of education lecturers would retire over the next 10 years.

He would propose the measures to the Education Reform Policy Commission, chaired by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The government is trying to improve the academic standards of teachers, students and schools as part of its education reforms.

Most of those who study teaching are those who fail to get a place in more popular faculties. Education is considered a low-paid job.

The Education Ministry has set aside a budget of 1.4 billion baht under the Thai Khem Khaeng (Strong Thailand) scheme to improve the academic standard of teachers.

The move came after many secondary teachers who sat recent exams in computer studies, maths and sciences failed the tests.

The results, released by the Office of the Basic Education Commission, showed that up to 88% of 3,973 teachers who specialise in computer sciences failed the test. Many teachers who failed were also found among those teaching biology (86% of 2,846), maths (84% of 5,498), physics (71% of 3,487), chemistry (64% of 3,088) and astronomy and earth sciences (63% of 529).