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All packed up and ready to go are these brand-new manuals and training materials in support of the new curriculum,. These materials should go a long way towards alleviating the anxiety many teachers are feeling over what they should be doing in preparation for implementation next year. |
That is certainly the case with this story. What began as a simple look into the working lives of six English teachers from Bangkok-area secondary schools, ended up as an overview of one of the least reported yet most important aspects of educational reform – the new curriculum.
Thus far the media has been focusing largely on the turf battles that have been raging behind the scenes as the deadline approaches for implementing the far-reaching administrative changes mandated by the National Education Act of 1999. Senior officials in education-related ministries have been actively lobbying politicians to protect their fiefdoms and, it appears they have been having enough success to throw the deadline into doubt.
But that is a story for the news section. From the Learning Post’s perspective, a far more interesting story is what Thai primary and secondary school children will be learning under the newly-reformed curriculum.
From all appearances, that curriculum remains firmly on schedule for initial countrywide implementation in April of next year. The objectives, principles, guidelines and standards are complete and a pilot programme is well underway with over 2000 schools currently testing out the curricula they developed last year.
Consequently, we were more than a little taken aback when most of the secondary teachers we talked to indicated their schools were far from ready to implement anything new. Indeed, there was considerable confusion and anxiety as to what they should be doing and they were receiving very little guidance from the centre.
What’s going on? To find out it was obvious that we were going to have to change course and move to the centre itself.
A remarkable document
Probably the biggest impetus to curriculum reform in Thailand was the new constitution which went into effect in 1997. The constitution demanded far-reaching changes which, in turn, were explicitly spelled out in the National Education Act of 1999.
This set in motion the development of the "Basic Education Curriculum" which was finally authorised in November of last year. In many ways, this is a remarkable and visionary document as it draws on the best practices of a large number of educational systems from around the world – much like the international baccalaureate curriculum found in many of Thailand’s international schools.
According to its preamble, the new curriculum is designed to rectify weaknesses in the current curriculum for primary and secondary schools which has been in place basically unchanged since its last revision more than a decade ago.
Specifically, the new curriculum is intended to address inadequacies in mathematics, science, technology and foreign language education, particularly the teaching of English. In addition, it is designed to undo the failure of the current system to foster critical thinking and the life skills necessary cope with our rapidly-changing world.
Finally, the new curriculum confronts the biggest weakness of them all, the failure of a curriculum produced by central authorities to address the needs of local educational institutions and the societies they serve. A truly relevant curriculum must have significant local input and individual schools will now be given a major role in its development. This, it turns out, is at the heart of the current confusion among our Bangkok teachers – but more on that later.
Looking through the new curriculum’s principles and goals, there is little that a progressive educator would quarrel with. The curriculum stresses equal opportunity for all. It aims to foster continuous and life-long learning and, above all, it is to be flexible.
Learners will develop qualities such as self-esteem and self-discipline, they will learn to think creatively and develop the means to "keep pace with changes and advancement in the academic world". All this will be done within a Thai context with love of country and its culture the most important goal of all.
Help is on the way
One of the most striking aspects to the Basic Education Curriculum is how short it is. In its present form, it easily slips into an ordinary shirt pocket.
The reason for its small size is that there is very little detail on the actual course content with little more than a single page devoted to each subject. This is in keeping with its expressed intent of giving the local schools and community a major say in what their children learn.
But it is also an understandable source of confusion and anxiety for a large number of schools who, up to this time, have received very little guidance on how they should be preparing for the next academic year.
 Dr Srisamorn Pumsa-ard |
According to Dr Srisamorn Pumsa-ard, the Director of the Curriculum Development Centre of the Ministry of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction Development, help is on the way. She and her staff have been working virtually non-stop for the past several years to ensure that the curriculum will be implemented on schedule.
Under this schedule, the new curriculum is to be introduced over a period of three years. Next year will see its implementation in primary (Prathom) levels one and four and secondary levels (Mattayom) one and four. The next year will see its extension to P2 and P5 and M2 and M5, with all levels covered the following year.
The plan also called for a pilot programme in selected schools (rongrian nam rong) which would develop and introduce their curriculum a year in advance. Until very recently, Dr Srisamorn and her staff have been preoccupied with this phase of the project.
As originally conceived, the pilot project was to involve two schools in each province which were deemed ready to begin the curriculum development process. In the end, however, more than 2,000 schools, both public and private, joined in.
These schools, assisted by ministry experts and outside academics, worked throughout last year to produce their curricula. This year they are trying them out.
During the development process, the ministry organised numerous training sessions and seminars for them and there were frequent get-togethers teachers and administrators from participating schools to share their experiences, both positive and negative.
In addition, according to Dr Srisamorn, the ministry set up ten committees covering all subject areas to provide additional training in curriculum design and to produce detailed manuals for teachers involved in the process. These manuals are now finished and have been distributed to all schools in the pilot programme.
The result of all this, says Dr Srisamorn, has been a wealth of information on the curriculum development process which will be of great benefit to the majority of Thai schools in preparation for nationwide implementation next April. And it is that phase of the project that she and her staff have begun focusing on.
Although this stage will be a massive undertaking involving many thousands of schools, she believes it will be manageable. Training programmes, seminars and workshops are already underway, she says, and expert help will be available to individual schools. In addition, schools are encouraged to contact those in their area who have been through the pilot programme for ideas.
The teachers’ perspective
This is a good time to turn to the six teachers mentioned at the beginning of this feature. They, after all, are the ones who will now be charged with writing a curriculum for their schools and then delivering it to their classes.
 1. Sirin Sungprakul 2. Nongluk Suriyachanthananont 3. Rodjana Thawan-itthikorn 4. Nipa Ninchawee 5. Patcharee Phuangchan 6. Khomkhai Phoonpoem |
The teachers we interviewed are Acharn Nongluk Suriyachanthananont of Bodin Decha, Acharn Patcharee Phuangchan of Mattayom Wat Buengthonglang School, Acharn Rodjana Thawan-itthikorn of Donmuang Tahan Argard Bumrung School, Acharn Sirin Sungprakul of Matayom Watnongkhaem School, Acharn Khomkhai Phoonpoem of Sai Nam Pheung School and Acharn Nipa Ninchawee of Nawamintrarachinuthit Horwang School in Nonthaburi.
All are veteran teachers with between 15 and 27 years of experience. As senior teachers, most are either heads or deputy heads of their departments and, as a result, their teaching loads are somewhat lighter than the 25 periods a week typically taught by other English teachers at their schools. Even so, they teach an average of 16 to 18 periods (45 to 55 minutes) a week with additional duties often equalling that of their teaching load.
Interestingly, teachers loads have been rising in recent years. A no-hiring policy at some of the schools is one reason, but some schools have been hit hard by the government’s early retirement policy. Acharn Patcharee says her staff dropped from 23 to 11 as half her teachers jumped at the government’s offer.
Even with the increased teaching loads, class sizes remain as large as ever – generally well above 50 in the first three years of secondary school and around 45 in the final three years. This says, Acharn Nipa, is a major obstacle for the reformed curriculum.
"With the child-centred education policy, she says, "50-60 students per class won’t allow us to do a good job. It’s very difficult to guarantee good quality."
Of all the teachers we interviewed, only one, Acharn Nongluk of Bodin Decha, expressed confidence that her department was fully prepared for the new curriculum. Not surprisingly, her school is one of the pilot schools. As a result, her teachers have a fully developed Mattayom 1 and 4 curriculum in place and are well on the way to completing the remaining years.
"It’s good," she says. "It’s a curriculum which helps us understand the particular situation of our students. We understand how to organise our programme for our own students. We have conceived it ourselves and implemented it ourselves. The standards come from the centre, but we can make adjustments according to our students’ capabilities."
According to Acharn Nongluk, her department received regular assistance from outside experts throughout last year, so she feels her teachers have a very good understanding of the principles behind the new curriculum. The school administration has also been very supportive, she added.
The other schools are clearly struggling, however. According to Acharn Komkhai, despite a series of seminars and workshops on the new curriculum, she does not feel her school is ready to write a curriculum of its own.
"I’ve been worried about the new curriculum," she says, "because our school is not ready to create or write one. We are not ready in terms of resources. Teachers have to find their own sources in order to create lesson plans. Teachers are not confident that the selected sources suit or serve their students well. It’s difficult to find the right innovative sources."
Nor does she believe the change will necessarily be for the better. "It’s frustrating for us since we’re working very hard. We see that the old way has produced good results. It is already good."
Acharn Sirin, objects to the way the new curriculum is being imposed on the teachers at her school. "I don’t like it, she says. "I think they should go to teachers and do some kind of poll – ask teachers, ask students, ask parents – collect the information and plan from that. Then they can go from that to a new policy.
"They think, ‘Oh this is good we must do this because it is good.’ Then they ask us to do it. It may be good, but it takes time. My school is very different from Trium Udom Suksa School. The parents of most of my students are motorcycle riders, work in factories, farmers, gardeners – about 80% of them."
Since these teachers come from relatively privileged situations compared to the majority of the schools in the country, their comments would seem to portend more than the usual teething problems when the curriculum is introduced next year.
The goal is a worthy one, however. This curriculum probably presents Thailand with the best hope ever of ridding Thai classrooms of the rote-learning process that has been in place for generations. There is great scope for community participation in the curriculum reform process and it is clear the teachers will need all the help and encouragement they can get.
terryfrd@ksc15.th.com |