School exam time upon us. Who will be puppets? Thailand

It is the time of the year where all Thai schools will be starting their semester 1 final exams. And it will now come to the time where all teachers throughout Thailand have to grade papers and offer marks to the students.

There has been a debate from teachers in Thailand going back a long time about schools having policies that come from their directors that say “You cannot fail students”. This of course gets many teachers’ hairs to stand on end as there are some students who treat their education as a walk in the park and couldn’t care less about studying or participating in classes as they know they will receive a passing grade.

I remember when I was green and told this, I was shocked and thought it was a joke. I remember being told that the Ministry of Education (MOE) Thailand’s government department had this set in stone. I found this to be untrue a year or so ago when I contacted them directly to clear this up once and for all.

I don’t believe that failing students is a good thing to do, especially young primary students in grades 1 to 3. They shouldn’t even sit exams or be given grades but be assessed on their abilities.

For senior students they need to be tested and graded to an honest ability. This just doesn’t happen in Thai schools, if a student is trying in a class, busting their ass then they should be passed on the effort they are making.

The students who know absolutely nothing, don’t turn up to classes, hand in work and so on do not deserve to pass, they should be failed and kept back a year to make them a little more humble, make them lose “face”.

This doesn’t happen in a lot of English programmes as they are the money winners for schools, charging 20-50,000 Thai Baht per semester many schools don’t want to make ripples in the water with well to do parents.

Our school has said they want all students, yes, all students to receive a minimum grade 2 which is a grade C or 60%. When you have students who maybe get 10% over the term it is an insult to be told, not asked to give them a 60% or grade 2.

The way students can receive a passing grade is by retesting, giving them extra work, attending summer school classes which are a huge joke and so forth.

I have for the last few years always refused to be apart of this, I don’t make a song and dance about it, I tell the head of our department that I will not pass students who do not deserve to be passed. I enter all the paperwork with the grades that I gave the students, what the school administration does with them after this is up to them.

I always send a letter to any parent of a student who failed informing them why they failed English. I explain that if the student receives a passing grade it isn’t from me, but the school administration that gave this grade.

I have read where teachers have written on web boards about being sacked and threatened with the sack if they don’t pass students. It is a disgrace that this is allowed to happen.

Why we foreigners do not have a Teacher’s Union where we could stand united on issues. The problem being is there would be too many piss weak people who aren’t brave enough to make a stand or are here teaching illegally and would be shit scared of being found out.

Take for instance, the current debacle of the Thai Culture Course. I have not read a good review about it, everyone who has written about attending this course said maybe one or two good things but mostly bagged the course of being nothing more than a revenue raiser.

If foreign teachers had some brains and made a union and stood together we wouldn’t be a puppet to government departments, to school boards and so on.

To teachers who cannot be bothered rocking the boat at schools and just say, ‘yes, yes’ you really need to have a good hard look at yourself. Think about who you are cheating. Not only are you cheating yourself, but also the kids who are trying hard and excelling in your classes. They watch kids who goof around, do nothing and are rewarded for this by getting grades that they do not deserve.

So stop being puppets, stop being “yes, men and women”, take some pride in what you do and have morals, morals that hopefully your parents installed in you many years ago.

If I got sacked over this I know I wouldn’t lose a minute of sleep. I know would have the backing of 95% of the parents and students, who I teach. It is amazing when you talk to a parent about a student who is having problems or causing problems and they are happy that you called them and spoke to them as they were unaware of this.

The heads of departments are not usually overly happy when they find out you didn’t inform them first that you had contacted parents, arranged meetings without their knowledge. I correspond with any parent directly now, I don’t want parents to be told things that do not come from my mouth. I want them to hear the truth from my big mouth.

Anyway that’s my two cents on this subject.

Feel free to give me a roasting if you are a puppet or don’t agree with my views.

Brunty