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english tests in thailand!!


stegee
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as an english teacher in thailand i find it frustrating when i test and grade students throughout a semester only to be told at the end of a semester that nobody is allowed to fail!!

i then have to bump up students with little or no english ability (and no interest in gaining any) alongside kids who work hard but struggle to achieve the same results. i then have to bump up the whole class.

i know other teachers have similar problems but would like to know what thai people think of this system.

parents are you happy that schools give your children passes even if they are not worked for or deserved??

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as an english teacher in thailand i find it frustrating when i test and grade students throughout a semester only to be told at the end of a semester that nobody is allowed to fail!!

i then have to bump up students with little or no english ability (and no interest in gaining any) alongside kids who work hard but struggle to achieve the same results. i then have to bump up the whole class.

i know other teachers have similar problems but would like to know what thai people think of this system.

parents are you happy that schools give your children passes even if they are not worked for or deserved??

alai na?

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i then have to bump up students with little or no english ability (and no interest in gaining any) alongside kids who work hard but struggle to achieve the same results. i then have to bump up the whole class.

i can't speak for your school administratives but i believe the whole idea of 'no on efails' policy is that u consistently look at the whole process of teaching through all the test u've been giving then throughout the semester. see who's falling behind and how to make them better.

it's not about making kids happy but it's about making them learn. bumping up the whole class makes u stay longer on the job but that doesn't help the kids. maybe too late in the game for this semester now. i'd humbly suggest u passing the kids by making sure everyone in the class is more or less on the same page.

kids have rights to learn and being a teacher is not an easy task.

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i then have to bump up students with little or no english ability (and no interest in gaining any) alongside kids who work hard but struggle to achieve the same results. i then have to bump up the whole class.

it's not about making kids happy but it's about making them learn. bumping up the whole class makes u stay longer on the job but that doesn't help the kids. maybe too late in the game for this semester now. i'd humbly suggest u passing the kids by making sure everyone in the class is more or less on the same page.

kids have rights to learn and being a teacher is not an easy task.

Easier said than done. Try havng mixed ability classes , where one kid can barely say hello and the one next to him wants to know what an irregular verb is.....very frustrating for you and them.

It's no always the teacher's fault.

In answer to Stegee's OP, don't worry mate, the results for last semester are still in my draw wating for somebody to ask for them........... :shock:

( three times i have tried to hand them in, only to be told, " don't worry we have the score already" )

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i then have to bump up students with little or no english ability (and no interest in gaining any) alongside kids who work hard but struggle to achieve the same results. i then have to bump up the whole class.

i can't speak for your school administratives but i believe the whole idea of 'no on efails' policy is that u consistently look at the whole process of teaching through all the test u've been giving then throughout the semester. see who's falling behind and how to make them better.

it's not about making kids happy but it's about making them learn. bumping up the whole class makes u stay longer on the job but that doesn't help the kids. maybe too late in the game for this semester now. i'd humbly suggest u passing the kids by making sure everyone in the class is more or less on the same page.

kids have rights to learn and being a teacher is not an easy task.

this is not just happeneing in my school!! it happens nationwide!!

we are given guidelines at the start of the school year as to how children should be tested and graded!! we were told yesterday in a meeting with the school principle that children MUST obtain a minimum of 2.5 (the minimum pass mark) in each of the categories for testing!!

as danny pointed out some classes have children whose response to every question asked is 'arai na?' whereas others in the class are able to hold a more or less perfect conversation!! these are the children who are prepared to do the work and WANT to learn english- the rest are there because they are told they have to be.

it doesn't matter if you make the lessons all about fun and games or about sentence form and punctuation- the kids who don't want to learn english do not learn english and therefore deserve to fail as much as those who deserve to pass deserve to pass!!

thai parents??

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s that u consistently look at the whole process of teaching through all the test u've been giving then throughout the semester. see who's falling behind and how to make them better.

it's not about making kids happy but it's about making them learn. bumping up the whole class makes u stay longer on the job but that doesn't help the kids. maybe too late in the game for this semester now. i'd humbly suggest u passing the kids by making sure everyone in the class is more or less on the same page.

kids have rights to learn and being a teacher is not an easy task.

Hmm, but wasn't this the whole point of original poster? You have tried to make them learn.The teacher has noticed thru the year that some of the kids are not inclined to learn and failing at every test. *But solution should not be to force every kid to the same page or make things so that the worst kids get passed grades "in real" because that would mean the rest of the class suffers!!!* Failed is a grade too, that helps more than "making sure everyone is on the same page and hence gets passed so called honestly".

So now he is faced with a situation that he would like to fail some, unfortunatly, but can't. Everyone I think agrees the point is to make the kids learn but here the focus is what if seems that the system doesn't let you do it or just be honest that not everyone even after all effort to try to do so, will want to learn. And what/why Thai parents accept this system.

Stegee: what if this "MUST get 2.5" should be interpreted as that IS the FAIL?! So that the "bell curve" forms from there on?

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Stegee: what if this "MUST get 2.5" should be interpreted as that IS the FAIL?! So that the "bell curve" forms from there on?

basically receiving 2.5 in each category in ongoing assessments means the students will get 50% the minimum pass mark!!

but i see what your saying- just means that we have smaller increments as we can only award a maximum of 5 in steps of 0.5!! but for this term we will just treat 2.5 as zero in realterms!!

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well .. i'm not trying to defend the school but i was just trying to rationalize it from an educational standpoint. it's easier said than done, yes. but optimistic educators on the ivory tower always say it can be done.

i'm fortunate that i don't teach english. (or is that kids are fortunate?). my subject is more or less of the same nature. i teach music. when i was out doing my student teaching, i flunked some monkies in the 8th grade. their teacher said to me i couldn't flunk them. humanitarian reasons. what i ended up doing was giving them more lessons so that they can retake the exam till they eventually passed it. more work for me. but i just couldn't pass them when they didn't deserve to. fortunately i'm now in the position where no one tells me how to grade my students so i do it as i see fit. i do flunk irresponsible, terrible kids from time to time.

however, 2.5 passing grade for everyone is ridiculous. i think it's not the case of child-centered education thing anymore. now i can see that they just wanna please the parents and make the kids happy. money from happy parents always count.

it could be a bit much for the school but if u believe in what u do, is it possible to propose the school to arrange english classes by levels of the kids? if they can do it, it'd be easier for the teachers to teache and the kids will learn faster too.

just my 2 cents

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u can give F to those in M.1-6 and in Uni... but cannot for those in pratom.. well Im not sure if u can or not but never seen one in pratom level failed unless they never came to study.. btw, do you call it primary school or secondary for pratom ones?

I have never been failed untill M.4-5-6 (all scient related subjects - Physic, Bio, Chemi :x ). And my mum (grandmum) didnt give me any compliment when I told her I got 97 from 100 points for English Subject ... she simply said "why didnt you get 100?" That's my mum, she was cool!

anyway brain and responsibility have to come together otherwise it's not real sufficient.

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  • 1 month later...

(breathe in..........)

....I didn't realise that there were so many professional teachers off the last boat?

.....In this case we should all come together and try and change the system that we are forced to comply with....

....Or.......get on with it, accept things for the way they are and try and not think of yourself as a revolutionary in a "moon on a stick" world...

...I mean......come on guys........."oh..think of the children"....

...they have been thought about and they are continuing to be thought about.......

.......I can guarantee that 99% of the reason everyone passes has more to do with the ministry of education's decree that "schools should have a native speaker"........and the fact that finding a good teacher who is reliable......can be called on 'heads or tails'........

...so............what do the schools do?..........rely on having someone who knows their arse from their elbow............or change the system accordingly to compensate for f*wits who come here to teach, with absolutely NO consideration for the curriculum or the welfare of the students.....

...or am I wrong?............all the EFL teachers, still with wet trousers off the boat, are here "for the children".......

...Jeeeeeez..........It's called a "CONTINGENCY PLAN".....when you know things are going to go wrong...and you make exceptions....

...fuckarooo........."My heart is broken because the school I have been working at for 2 days.......won't listen to what I have to say...."

....Boooo Hoooo..........take a pay cut...and come in on time for a year.

...(...and....breathe out........)

...79

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I've seen the same problems when teaching English in vietnam . . .

I also studied at ABAC and found the whole system to be flawed and deeply bureaucratic and political to the point that I'd almost rather just give up on my education (I can get a bit stubborn when it comes to certain principles) . . . However, my experiences with an Australian university in Vietnam were not much better and so for the future I'd prefer to get my children into a Danish university - not because I think they're the best, but because they're the best I've seen so far . . .

Nevertheless, I do think some kids get through their education with an amount of knowledge that can actually be used for something constructive (I dare say 95% of the BBA students end up with jobs paying them less money than what they'd need to pay back the costs of the actual education, but then who cares when daddy pays) although it's not many...

When hiring Thai people now (something I haven't actually done yet, but must do soon), I'll either insist on an IELTS or I'll simply test them myself... When it comes to their knowledge in other areas, I almost couldn't care less if they show me their bachelor or masters degree - it comes down to actual knowledge and I'd definately test a guy/girl before paying them 2 grand a month - but then by now I'd do that whether they have a western or asian education . . .

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The IELTS test is VERY real - the same as in any other country . . . It's very long, they make it impossible to cheat and it's usually on a saturday from early morning till late afternoon - I think we started 8 o'clock and finished 16:30 . . .

I can only advice future IELTS takers NOT to go on a long night out - I ahd only slept 4 hours, kept farting for the duration of the test and broke out in nasty sweats . . .

Thank god I don't ahve to do that again!

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