My biggest gripe about Thailand.There is absolutely no desire to create an analytical thinking populace!!!!
Damn ,I wish my daughter was 7 yo again and I knew as much about this ed system as I think I do now,I would not have allowed her to get near one of these defunct babysitting services!
At 7,as LA said,they are a sponge ,learn more rapidly than any other time!
I started teaching my stepdaughter English at 8,alphabet,phonetic sounds and reading,3-4 hours a day.It was a chore and a battle as I had no experience and language was always my worst subject.after a few months ,my wife's tutor ,a 30ish Thai Uni English major was introduced for both Thai and English skills,3x a week!
She progressed rapidly,although not always happy about it.The grammar was very weak,but the communication around the house was great!
Then came the school debacles.Although,long term,the American International school of Bangkok,was outside our budget,we were able to get her into the school through a neighbor friend that was an office worker there!
She should not have been accepted because she was not proficient enough in English to keep up!It took a little over a month to see what was really happening!She was put in the back of the class and was learning zip,completely lost and scared,with NO friends!
Next school,private Thai,was a complete dog and pony show,very little instruction in any subjects and 50 % of the times I visited ,unannounced,(very insulting to them)and often,no teacher in the classroom with the students running amuck!
Next school,private,restricted access to classrooms,alot of homework,no feedback,no parent -teacher individual conferences,good grades,but difficulties with social acceptance and she didn't want to go back.Falang English teacher quit early on and was never replaced that year.
Moved to NK,put her in St.Pauls as I was told it was the best!Hi-So racist school,revolving Falang and Phillipina English teachers!Another dog and pony show school,56 students to a class,very little homework,no feedback!She was the only student that could converse in English,yet ranked 32 out of 56 gradewise.Everyone passed although she was failed in 3 classes,needed ''retesting'',where she was encouraged to ask someone the answer if she didn't know it!
After 3 years there,my neighbor,an English teacher in NK for 11 years,encouraged me to put her in his school PTK,a gov't school!He told me she was the best student in his class!Unfortunately he got seriously ill combined with some ''terminal'' disillusionment with Thailand and decided to leave for the USA!
She is in her 2nd year there,likes the social life better,but complains that the teachers don't teach most of the time ,just passing out handouts,English teacher can not speak English,no falang on staff!Midterm grades not recorded until just before the end of the year and the final grades are not available until the start of the next school year.They have no answers,only invites to parents day which consists of ''lecture'' about future plans and requests for donations
Consequently,although her vocabulary has increased over time,her pronunciation has greatly deteriorated and her grammar has not improved.As a 17 yr old ,she spends most of her time speaking Thai with other teenagers and less time talking English with us!
I made alot of mistakes in her education guidance and I wish I could do it over!
Good luck with your daughter,KHONDAHM
