A number of research works explain the
role of teacher quality and learning outcomes.
Even though research papers in term of teacher quality linkages to
education performance are very rare for the case of Thailand. The Office of
Education Council (2010) nevertheless reported the problems of teaching
position in Thailand in term of its weakness in both quality issues and
quantity issues. In term of quantity
issue, even though a number of teachers in the overall Thai education system
have be increasing over time from 583,921 to 703,468 during 1992-2008, this
upward trend is nevertheless not enough to cover an also increasing trend of
student enrollment by keeping the figure of teacher to student ratio ranging
its constant around 20-22 students per one teacher over the periods.
About 91 percent of Thai teachers are
employed within the Ministry of Education, remained are under local governance
including sub-district authorities (Ministry of Interior) and Bangkok
authority. A lower trend of teacher quantity indicates the reason why the
figure of student per teacher ratio in Thailand is one of the highest among
other countries in the region. Relatively high student per teacher ratio
indicate lower capability a teacher can devote for their teaching as well as the
monitoring of student’s performance (Office of Education Council, 2010).
In term of teacher quality in
Thailand, it is very critical stating this issue. However earlier 2010, the
Office of the Basic Education Commission tested the high school teachers in the
same subjects they teach. The results
were shocking and disappointing. 88
percent of the teachers failed the test in computer science, 86 percent of them
failed in biology, 84 percent of them failed in mathematics, 71 percent of them
failed in physics and 64 percent of them failed in Chemistry, and 63 percent of
them failed in Astronomy and earth sciences (Bangkok Post, December 16, 2010).
Besides, Chanbanchong (2010) also
analyzed reason causing weak quality of Thai teachers in term of provider’s
side (or teacher education institutes).[1] First, there were found having a brain drain
problem occurring in the teacher colleges (or Ratchabhat College). The teacher
college, which is the largest teacher provider, cannot attract competent
professor/lecturers working there. Qualified education professors/ lecturers
decided to choose their careers in Faculty of Education or other faculties
(such as Science, Business, and Social Science) in large universities that
provide more incentives and better career advance. Second, even in a large
universities themselves, the Faculty of Education is not however treated as the
first-class faculty, compared to Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Business
Administration, Faculty of Science, etc, and cannot be attracted qualified
students and young generation to enroll in education major and pursue their
teaching career. This is therefore another main obstacle to produce qualified
teachers in the future. (Ministry of Education, 2011)[2] Third, the Thailand
Qualification Framework (TQF), announced in 2009, obstructed the “outsource
procedure” to teach in some particular subjects that need to be out-sourced the
teaching staff from other faculties (such as science, arts, social science). In
addition, in term of productivity improvement of teacher and market incentive,
by comparing to other occupations, teachers get poorer paid, lack of support in
academic training reflecting their teaching skills and dedication to students
to be undervalued in the appraisal system (Bangkok Post, December 16, 2010).
In order to
enrich prospective of teaching position in Thailand, proposed by the Ministry
of Education, the Royal Thai Government, under Prime Minister Abhisit
Vejjajiva, has followed the plan of second round education reform by
establishing the “National Committee of Teacher Education”, chaired by the
Prime Minister, in March 2011. The committee has agreed on 6 main strategies
and regulations for the reform on teacher education as the following
- To establish the “National Institute of Teacher Education” which will be an independent organization, conducted under the Ministry of Education, to drive strategic regulations on the reform of teacher education
- To enhance training and learning process to the teachers in both formal and non-formal education system
- To produce the “New Species Teacher” that aims attracting the competent new generation to choose their career in teaching position
- To support curriculum and learning innovation in teacher colleges and universities
- To enhance human resource development system, including incentives pay and career promotion that will be suit to higher qualified teachers.
- To adopt the “Teacher Education Cluster- TEC” to the teacher colleges. Pilot subjects will be Mathematics, Science, Foreign Languages, Early Childhood, Arts and Music.
The
quantitative evidence identifying teacher quality is quite rare in Thailand.
The only available data used under the Ministry of Education is “Teacher’s
education level”. Correcting the provincial data of percentage of teacher who
earn graduate level (Master degree and Doctoral degree) and O-NET score, there
is some positive correlation identifying provinces having higher proportion of
teachers who earn graduate degree should somewhat contribute to better
education performance.
[1]
Chanbanchong, Chantana (2010) “Toward Further Reform of Education in Thailand”
Paper presented in the 2nd East Asian International Conference on
Teacher Education Research and Teacher Education in the Future, December 15,
2010, Hong Kong Institute of Education.
[2]
Office of Education Council (2011) “Strategies and Regulations in the Reform of
Teaching Education in Thailand” (ยุทธศาสตร์และมาตรการการปฏิรูประบบคุรุศึกษาของประเทศ), Ministry of
Education