Does anyone know of a link to website that might possibly have the Thai school curriculum, in English? I've done a search, unsuccessfully. I finally got a curriculum out of management after a year of badgering. In Thai. I can read Thai, but it'll take me 10 years to get through that lot!

Thanks in advance.

I apologise for the spelling mistake in the title (before the spelling police jump on me).

The Basic Education Curriculum 2544 (in English) describes 4 levels:
P1-P3, P4-P6 (primary education) and
M1-M3, M4-M6 (secondary education).

It's all in this handy book.



Your school should order it. It isn't on-line available. Neither officially nor unofficially (by posters on teacher forums).

Petch01

This post has been edited by Petch01: 2008-03-07 15:12:47

Thanks for this! I'm going do a screen print and dump it under my boss' nose, so she can stop the "no have" speech..

This post has been edited by Kerry: 2008-03-07 16:29:45

I've seen a copy before. Is it available at any bookstore in Bangkok?

There are standards in english from the private education sector of the MoE. Probably a translation of the above book (which I assume is in Thai). However, this book most likely covers the CORE syllabus (which is vague at best), and not the elective topics (I teaach upper mathyom mathematics and have never seen the elective syllabus (if there is on). I just glean it from Thai textbooks. The syllabus won't go into too much detail, so you have to work out the rest of it yourself.

My own post intrigued me. I wrote that the book isn't available on-line and that's still true but I remember seeing it somewhere in parts. Well, I found it. Follow the link.

http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/resource-pool...html#post715775



The book is in English same as the parts of it posted on another forum (follow the link).

You are right that they are the STANDARDS (core), which means that they describe the knowledge end-terms of each level. 4 levels covering 12 school years. A curriculum which describes what one should teach in for example P1, P5 or M4 doesn't exist. Yes, copying it from the Thai books is a step in the right direction but it lacks the description of dept. So, what to do? Skim through the Thai books and find the dept. After doing that you will be stunned. The dept of most of the English books you use go beyond the knowledge offered in the Thai books.

The problem of the curriculum describing 4 levels is addressed as long as English Programs exist. Every school teaches what they think is good without any reference. Obvious, because there aren't any national English tests for P3, P6, M4 and M6 similar to the Thai tests for these "end-levels".

I hope you can do something with the information in this post.

Petch01

This post has been edited by Petch01: 2008-03-07 21:51:38

Yes the lack on national Tests will become more of a problem in future (or perhaps not!). We can't even get a detailed curriculum in english let alone an exam. Many students seem to go to university regardless of what they learned at school in our EP). So maybe it isn't a huge issue. Most aren't interested in getting into a Thai language program (unless it's one that will take any student).

In terms of standardised exams, the MoE should allow flexibility in the syllabus for letting us teach for SAT's, TOEFL, etc, as these are the exams they may have to sit for International Programs in universities.

In M1-M3 there are actually books that cover the Thai curriculum in english (from Malaysia I believe), but there is more of a problem in the m4-6 as I mentioned. For the latter grades I jsut read the Thai books and match up the content as closely as I can with what material I have. They do have a book, but it only covers perhaps 40% of the content in the syllabus. The rest has to be photocopied. Anyway I'm doing ok with it. You would think the school should organise translations of topics/subtopics, but it hasn't. It should be happening this year.

Thanks for your post

One school I worked for had translated the curriculum themselves about three years ago and had English books from Singapore. The books and the curriculum did not match well (which isn't uncommon for US texts either) but some of the curriculum was just bizarre. Not sure if it was the translation... but under P5 "health" was only, "Teaching boys and girls the correct gender roles and the importance of following them."

In my class, we had a girl that they were already calling a tom (just as a matter of fact, not in a mean-spirited way) and a few other kids that may turn out to be gay later in life. The kids all got along and were great, so I asked the director what to do about the 'health curriculum". He said not to worry about it so I ended up doing nutrition and cooking instead.

Perhaps this will point you in the right direction. I will tell you, though, it is incomplete. http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/classroom/7230-moe-strands.html

Wangsuda, bless your heart, that is about the best anybody came up with in several years, and it is not clear. Nor was it even half complete. Please prove me wrong, somebody: please show that there is a Thai curriculum, at least in three year bands, that in clear ENGLISH says what we are supposed to teach students.

Wishful thinking PB.

As part of our bilingual efforts...............we do have a Social Studies book for P3 which goes into great detail about the Brighton ( UK ) seaside..............................50 years ago.

And a very informative 3 pages about the Island of Mull. ( I can already imagine lots of TV members even now looking on wikipedia for some useful facts about the Island )



Threw it in the bin.

This post has been edited by stevemiddie: 2008-03-08 20:43:43

Ah yes, the effort to teach Thai kids in the provinces how Mustafa Xysyphys from Bangaledesh is operating the wet grocery in some ancient city in Essex whilst his wives publish the weekly paper. Or the weather in the Shetland islands.

In answer to your OP, there is (as far as I know) no set national curriculum for any level of Thai education. What is published and available in English are the MoE strands, substrands, and outcomes for each grade. It is up to the school to decide how to best meet these objectives. All schools that I have been to have curriculum books available to show parents how the school achieves MoE requirements. Unfortunately, these books are usually in Thai, so translation is necessary. The curriculum you received from managements is probably the closest you'll get. I wish you luck.

"What is published and available in English are the MoE strands, substrands, and outcomes for each grade. It is up to the school to decide how to best meet these objectives."

And herein lies our problem. What is mean't to be taught is very specific (based on National Tests and the 0-Net, and A-Net exams). The MoE doesn't seem to support EP's and bilingual programs and doesn't give detailed information to such schools regarding what to teach. Maybe the detailed information isn't available. Hence, that's what I've gone through Thai books to understand what to be teaching.

Thanks so much for all your replies. I don't even know why I'm bothering, seeing as I'm leaving, but I hate to leave things unfinished. It's taken over 2 years to get the Thai version of whatever it is, any bets on how long it'll take to get it translated?
I think I should pick my battles a bit more carefully :-p
lol