Phuket officials are planning to step up the island province’s education standards. Phuket Governor Narong led a meeting on the issue yesterday.
Officials discussed using Big Data to develop Phuket’s entire education system. The aim would be to ensure that all students have an equal education, with no students left disadvantaged. Narong said that this would make Phuket an “international education hub”. An official from the Phuket Provincial Education Commission listed five groups of students: those at risk of dropping out of school temporarily without officially “resigning”, those who leave mid-term and officially “resign”, those who graduate from high school but don’t continue their studies further, those who have never officially studied at a school, and those who are currently held in the judiciary process at a detention centre.
Meanwhile, Governor Narong brought up the need to educate students on disaster management. He cited Phuket’s recent floods as an example of how crucial it is to educate students on environmental protection and climate change.
The official from the Phuket Provincial Education Commission also listed four important skills for Phuket’s education system. These skills, she said, include teaching students to communicate effectively in English, developing professional skills, and engaging network partners. The official said that Phuket’s education needs to be more innovative.
The director of one organisation discussed how her organisation was bringing English skills to Phuket students. The director was Wipha Sairat, from Phuket’s branch of the Neighbouring Countries Economic Development Cooperation Agency (NEDA). Wipha said that NEDA focuses on developing English skills for teachers and school administrators.
This meeting comes after another official also tried to step up Phuket’s English education earlier this year. The chief of Phuket’s Kathu district, Siwat Wangkun, said he had looked beyond the walls of the district’s schools for teaching English, since some school staff lacked proficient English teaching skills.
The groups Siwat turned to for help included local government agencies, foundations, associations, and entrepreneurs who were qualified and proficient in English.
Thailand’s poor ranking in English language has been discussed for many years. Critics of Thailand’s education system say it is outdated as it focuses on rote learning methods, which essentially means memorising facts and figures, rather than applying them.
Will Phuket’s schools be able to step up their skills in English, and other areas? We’ll have to wait and see.