[lg policy] Thailand: Extracting excellence--Three experts reveal the plans behind the academic successes of their respective countries

[Harold Schiffman]

Extracting excellence
Three experts reveal the plans behind the academic successes of their
respective countries

Published: 11/11/2009 at 12:00 AM


Recently, three experts from Singapore, the UK and Finland shared the
elements behind the educational success of their countries at "The 1st
International Conference on Learning and Teaching & Educa 2009", an
event to develop and foster quality teachers and education, hosted by
the Faculty of Education of Burapha University and its partners at the
Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (Bitec) in Bangkok.

Singapore initiatives

Masagos Zulkifli, senior parliamentary secretary of Singapore's
Ministry of Education, expounded on the past and present forces that
have made and are continuing to make Singapore one of the education
warhorses of the Asian region.

According to Mr Zulkifli, the country's first vital policy that has
greatly contributed to the success of the island-state was the
emphasis on bilingualism - students are required to study English as
their first language and their mother tongue as an additional
language.

"Getting our language policy right was crucial for the survival and
success of our multicultural nation," the parliamentary secretary
said.

The second important policy that has been adopted is the ability-based
"streaming system". The practice is designed to reduce "educational
wastage" and to raise the high learning standards ever higher.

Within the streaming system, students are grouped together according
to their levels of academic achievements. Each group is provided with
the most appropriate curricula, resources and pedagogies. The numbers
show that students learn more and stay in school longer as a result,
Mr Zulkifli commented.

The third element is the emphasis on mathematics and science. Mr
Zulkifli said that in the past, as Singapore was focusing on
industrialisation, these two subjects were crucial to the production
of relevant manpower for supporting and developing a modern,
industrialised economy.

"Even as we move into a knowledge-based economy, driven by investment,
research and development, we have decided that it is important not to
let go of the focus on the dominance of these two subjects," said Mr
Zulkifli.

"This approach ensures that young Singaporeans have a solid foundation
for consolidating new knowledge and a key for mastering technology,
thereby giving Singapore a competitive [edge] in the new economy," he
added.

Recent focus

According to the parliamentary secretary, the above-mentioned elements
have formed the bedrock of Singapore's education reform from the past
to the present. Mr Zulkifli continued by highlighting another three
key educational features that the country is currently stressing.

The first item is to ensure that schools are provided with quality
teachers and school leaders.

For teachers, professional development opportunities are made
available at every stage of the teaching journey. They are encouraged
to move forward into postgraduate studies, and they can work in other
fields besides teaching in order to obtain additional experience.

For school leaders, "we look for the ability in an individual, not
just the number of years of school experience", said Mr Zulkifli.
"Currently, around 26 percent of our serving principals are younger
than 45 years old," he added.

Those with high potential will undergo a series of "principalships"
and master's programmes. This is to attain independent and innovative
leaders with a specialisation in the field of education.

The second element is the cluster system. Under this system, schools
are grouped together based on geographical location. Each cluster is
overseen by a superintendent, who is usually an ex-school principal.
Schools in the same cluster usually share common policies and
resources.

The third key is to provide education beyond textbooks. One of the
mechanisms to achieve this goal is called "co-curricular activities",
which aims to develop skills like teamwork and leadership and to
instil qualities, such as confidence, by having students participate
in music, robotics, the arts and other things outside their normal
school curricula.

"All of these were designed to develop strength of character in our
students, which enables them to better adapt and thrive in a rapidly
changing world," said Mr Zulkifli.

Students also develop multicultural skills in order to succeed in the
globalised world. This is done through community-involvement projects
and cultural study programmes.

"Our target is that one-third of the students in [high schools],
colleges and universities need to have at least one overseas
experience," said Mr Zulkifli. The institutions will be granted
additional funding to ensure that students gain access to this
opportunity regardless of their background.

The Singaporean education ministry has also determined the
characteristics of students of the 21st century - confident persons,
self-directed learners, concerned citizens and academic contributors.

UK's integrated workforce

While Mr Zulkifli delivered a framework of Singapore's education
system, Karen Dunn, PhD, UK's head of international development in
education at Sheffield Hallam University picked up one crucial element
of the education reform in the UK - the integrated children's
workforce, which is the workforce on jobs that deal with children.

With an integrated children's workforce, all sectors of the society,
including professionals and parents, collaborate with teachers to
provide services for children to provide young ones with access to
allow them to excel in the highest levels of academic excellence and
well-being.

According to Dr Dunn, the key is to reshape services around the needs
of children, young people and their families.

Currently, there are about 2.6 million people working in the
children's workforce in the UK. Of this number, approximately one
million are teachers.

"We have to try to think of education as part of a whole set of
services that are located around the child and help them develop
throughout [their lives]," said Dr Dunn. This has been done by
connecting children services together in a more integrated way.

"We need to think not just about giving them more instructions or
asking them to repeat something, but to think what services that
children need. We have to help them make use of their access to
learning and expand on the services provided by people who are not in
the teaching profession, but who might have other skills that can help
the children involved to benefit from the curricula," Dr Dunn
commented.

The national-level Integrated Qualification Framework (IQF) was
established to recognise and certify new professional roles within the
children's workforce. The IQF provides a comprehensive set of common
core skills and requirements that all members of the children's
workforce must possess.

The UK government also set up the Children's Workforce Development
Council (CWDC), which is charged with the responsibility of
coordinating smoothly the work of the various agencies involved and to
bring consistency to the way children are taught and looked after.

The CWDC provides opportunities for dialogue among and between
employers, the workforce, children, young teenagers and their families
as well as being responsible for commissioning education research
studies created by the collaborative efforts of academics and policy
makers.

Teaching assistants

One of the results of an integrated children's workforce is, according
to Dr Dunn, the emergence of teaching assistants and learning support
assistants. The assistants can be the children's parents or
professionals, such as medical doctors, nurses, etc., who are also
interested in joining the children's workforce.

"The role of this group of people is to support learning in the
classroom. They work alongside teachers and promote the inclusion of
disabled children into mainstream education," said Dr Dunn. "They are
also to help in identifying and supporting the social and emotional
needs of children that may act as obstacles in their path towards
educational success," she continued.

These teaching assistants can be trained to become teachers. This is
aligned to the UK government's goal of not only training more
teachers, but also to its efforts to try to recruit people who are
from the local communities, too.

This aspect of reform is meant to work across the educational sector
in the UK, while increasing the number of education professionals in
all sectors, according to Dr Dunn.

"A diverse and differently configured workforce has made active
learning much more achievable," she said. Previously, teachers bore
enormous pressure from discharging their responsibility for all
students. Under the new structure, three to four more professionals
are present inside the classroom to help the teachers.

"Teachers are now aware that they can call upon 'live' services from
other professions in the children's workforce to help them deliver
[effective] education," said Dr Dunn, adding that students are also
starting to appreciate having different role models to relate to in an
education setting.

As the teaching assistants can be professionals from their
communities, "they know the children from a different aspect, which
can allow them to have an understanding of them that their teachers
wouldn't have".

Finnish flexibility

In the case of Finland, Sakari Karjalainen, PhD, director-general of
the Department of Education and Science Policy in Finland's Ministry
of Education, said that one of the factors behind the success of
Finnish education is the flexibility in organising learning
activities.

"The schools have a lot of freedom in implementing the national core
curriculum," said Dr Karjalainen.

Under the Finnish curriculum, according to the director-general,
teachers and principals play central roles in working on the
curriculum and in developing education.

They have autonomy in the allocation of goals, content, time and
resources, selection of methods and materials, and the formation of
study groups.

There is also a collaboration at the national level, with the health
and social authorities, to take care of the student's overall welfare
services.

"Teachers can choose which textbooks to use and how to teach," said Dr
Karjalainen, "However, success is possible only if the teachers have
received good training in education [pedagogies]." This leads to
another key element behind the success: the teachers themselves.

The three things that matter most in respect of teachers, according to
Dr Karjalainen are, "getting the right people to become teachers,
developing them into effective instructors, and ensuring that the
system is able to deliver the best possible instruction to each and
every single child".

In Finland, teachers are well qualified. Kindergarten teachers have at
least a bachelor's degree, while all teachers teaching basic education
hold a master's degree. More importantly, teachers have an
appreciation for their profession, said the director-general.

One interesting feature of the Finnish core curriculum is the
existence of integrative cross-curricular themes. These themes include
growth as a person; culture identity and internationalism;
participatory citizenship and entrepreneurship; responsibility for the
environment; well-being and a sustainable future; and many others.
Teachers of the various subjects are required to integrate these
themes into their teaching.

Back to the context of Thailand's efforts to bring about meaningful
education reforms, the examples and ideas given by these three experts
can surely assist Thai education practitioners and policymakers in
reshaping, improving and developing the country's education system for
the benefit of the nation's younger generations.

-- Bangkok Post
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