Parents are responsible
for their child's education

Save the planet

The Education Ministry has incorporated this into the science curriculum for basic education, however the TEI has pointed out some areas of concern. The textbooks have insufficient detail; well trained teachers are needed as well as a properly designed programme. Local administrations and schools will have to encourage the local community to address climate change.

At no time was there any mention of parents being directly encouraged to help in this area. I personally find this very disappointing, not just because of the emotive subject of climate change, but for the fact that I do not see the majority of parents being involved in the education process.

Involvement of parents in education

This problem was recently illustrated to me when one of my students, Somsak, who was studying English for Computer Engineering with the Language Center at Udon Thani Rajabhat University, answered a question in a reading exercise.

The exercise was an exercise in thinking in English; an exercise that starts a sentence where there are three or four multiple choice answers which have to be answered in a short period of time without the use of a dictionary resulting in the student having to read and think in English to answer the question.

The question I would like to highlight concerned teachers conducting meetings at school:

The teachers at school often have meetings. They have meetings with the other teachers, and they have meetings with the

a. school
b. classes
c. company
d. mothers and fathers

Somsak answered school at first and when asked to provide a different answer, he went through all the other answers ignoring answer d. mothers and fathers. I asked why he did not think answer d. was correct. He stated that he did not feel that Thai parents were involved in the education process. This caused me to ask my Thai colleagues and they confirmed Somsak's beliefs. Apparently it is very unusual for parents to be involved in their children's education, though this may be different in areas such as Bangkok.

Could this have something to do with how education was regarded in Thailand in the past? Some of today's parents, especially in my area of North East Thailand left school at the age of twelve (only six years of free basic education) to work on family farms as it would have cost too much money to pay for further education and also deprived the farm of one extra pair of hands.

Parents and schools working together

To highlight a local environmental problem, if I were to compare my children's' schools, I could clearly see the differences. One school is clean, well managed and involves the parents with the education of their children, where as the other is completely the opposite. If a school allows children to discard rubbish on the floor and parents throw rubbish out of the car window as they drive, it will be very difficult to make those individuals understand matters to do with the environment.

Parent teachers associations abound in the USA and UK. In my opinion, schools, teachers and parents working together to do their best for the next generation is a tried and tested formula for success and I would hope it proves successful for the schools that adopt the philosophy in Thailand.

As the Thailand Environment Institute stated, more needs to be done to encourage students to convert the lessons into practice. To do this, I believe that parents have the ultimate responsibility to ensure it happens.

Steven Graham is an English language teacher at the Language Center, Udon Thani Rajabhat University in northeast Thailand. If there are any comments or areas for debate that you would like to discuss, you can contact Steve at shed_chelsea@hotmail.co.uk .