Thai children get to school early. As early as 6.30, well before they are required to be at the morning assembly at 8.00 am.
There are some 3,400 children at my school, Suratpittaya, a government school in Suratthani. Every morning they all line up in their class and years, and sit on the concrete in the sun before a small stage.
If you are late, you stand in from of the school and they make an example of you. They make you do star jumps or they will examine your hair. If it is too long, they will take you aside and give you an impromptu haircut with a pair of ordinary paper scissors.
Each morning, I am told, they get a lecture on being a good student. They also have prayers or meditation and sing the national anthem. They all stand as the flag is raised. This goes on for about 45 minutes with the early morning sun beating down on them.
It is quite a sight – three thousand kids all in matching uniforms with matching haircuts, repeating the same words.
The uniforms change with the days of the week. For my kids: Monday and Tuesday, normal school uniform; white, short sleeve shirts for the boys with navy blue shorts white socks and black shoes; while the girls have a white short sleeved blouse with a navy knee length skirt, white socks and black shoes.
Wednesday, is scouts day. There are several types of scouting uniform. For the boys there is the brown, blue and navy; denoting scouts (or army), air force or navy. For the girls there is light blue, dark blue, another type of blue and green representing nurses, girl scouts, air force and community services.
Two days a week they wear their sports uniform. It is a blue and yellow track suit that they wear for the whole day.
The Thai teachers also have uniforms – Monday it is the "desert storm" uniform. This is a brown military type number with epaulettes and ribbons denoting rank. I asked the head of the English department whether the medals were for the number of children she had killed. She laughed but did not deny it.
Tuesday and Thursday teachers wear Thai silk, usually suits of their own choosing. Wednesdays they also wear a scouting uniform. There is something slightly disturbing about seeing a forty year old man wearing shorts and long socks. Friday is Hawaiian shirt day – also the day when students clean the school from top to bottom… a brilliant idea.
I know of at least two teachers who augment their uniform with a long bamboo stick. With 48 kids in their classes, this is often required for crowd control. “Magic Stick” is written long one teacher’s stick. I have borrowed it on occasion and it truly is magic.
With that many children in a class learning is mainly by rote. They are not really interested in understanding but copying. Put anything on the board and they will write it in their books often without reading it. You will say “What is your name?” and they will reply “What is your name?” Then you move onto “I am a monkey” You will have 48 kids repeating it. If you put an information gap activity on the board, they will copy everything but not put in the answers until someone gives tells them or it is time to mark.
The kids are generally allot more interested in making things look pretty. If you give them a project, they will spend ten minutes on the English and two hours on the pictures. Pretty is important in Thailand.
This is demonstrated anytime there is a holiday – Hallmark or otherwise. Xmas, Valentines Day or the King’s Birthday they will decorate the notice boards with Santas, love hearts and pictures of the King - all with colourful paper flowers.
As with the rest of Thai society (from what I have seen) the women do all the work while the boys do all the goofing off. Thai classes are not streamed either, so there might be two or three kids who do the work/homework and the rest will copy theirs. You will find that one desk of students will all have the same answers.
Thai teachers earn significantly less money than the farang (native English speakers) and work allot harder. They arrive earlier and leave later. In addition they are required to get involved in the numerous extra curricular activities – camps, exhibitions etc. It is no surprise then that you will often find them asleep at the back of the teacher’s room.
In the English department, very few of the teachers studied English at a tertiary level. Communication can be a bit hit and miss, but their English is allot better than my Thai. They also regularly bring local delicacies for our pleasure (or their amusement as with durian and jack-apple – the foulest smelling fruit known to man).
A primary teacher in Thailand is called a Kru but a high school teacher is known as Ajarn. Students call me Ajarn Alan (Alternatively, Aj. Obe-won). The closest term to this in English would be professor. The Ajarn hold a high status in Thai society and can also apply to your Buddhist monk teacher.
At the start of each class, the leader of the group calls “Stand up please”, they all stand and repeat in unison “Good morning Ajarn Alan”. They will keep standing until I tell them to sit. Oh the power!! If you ask them a question they will stand to answer it. When you are marking their work, they will stand on their knees before you. I am not all that comforatable with this. If they want to enter your class they ask from the door “May I come in please”.
At the end of the class they all stand again and say “Thank you Ajarn Alan”.
When a student passes you in the halls or even in the street they are required to wai you. A wai is the Thai greeting but also shows respect depending on the level of wai. To wai press both hands together as in prayer and bow your head keeping your elbows by your side. A casual wai will have the tips of the fingers below the chin. The highest form is the royal wai – reserved for the royal family, is performed on the knees and base of your hands are held over your forehead. The most I get is the tips of the fingers touching their nose – unless they are groveling. The teacher does not wai back, just nods their recognition – or you would be doing it all day with over 3 000 kids.
At the beginning of the school year there is a ceremony called Wai Kru or Respect to Teachers Day. Here students pay respect to the King, the monks, the academic hierarchy and their teachers. Students walking on their knees present garlands of flowers to their teachers before the whole school. The monks play an active role in education attending this and other celebrations throughout the year. During the monsoon season, when the monks are confined to the temple (a tradition originally designed to stop monks walking through and destroying the fragile rice crops), students arrive with steel canisters containing food for the monks – as they cannot do their usual rounds of collecting alms first thing in the morning.
Speaking of food – the school canteen puts those that I have seen elsewhere in the world to shame. There are about twenty different stalls where students can get noodle soup, rice and three choices of meat or vegetables for 15B (AU$0.50). For afters there is a great range of local, fresh fruit. The only downside is the provision of watered down Pepsi and “Nestle” water.
Above all, the school is supremely disorganized. Classes will be shortened by ten minutes to make way for a longon eating contest, a visiting band or beauty contest. Alternatively, all your classes could be cancelled with less than ten minutes notice. On more than two occasions during the monsoon, we surfed our way to school, down streets that had turned into rivers only to find the school locked and barred with no one on hand to tell us that everything was closed for the day. I could go on, but you get the idea.
My impression is that education in Thailand is not so much about the acquiring of knowledge or determining a career path, but as indoctrination into society and social control. Therefore, not much different to the system in which I was raised.
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