Thai Teachers Get a Real Knowledge Boost

From The Nation, published 24 September 2007:

 NEW LEARNING PROGRAMME WINS PRAISE

How can a mathematics teacher make her students pay attention enthusiastically to a lesson in a subject many people consider boring, especially when she has not even completed her bachelor’s degree in the field?

Nowadays, there are around 400,000 teachers teaching 8.5 million students in primary and secondary schools throughout Thailand under the Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC) - and thousands of teachers do not teach directly the subjects they studied in university, according to OBEC’s Operations Centre Department.Phuangphen Sawatdee-mongkol, 51, a teacher at Chumchon Wat Nongree School in Chon Buri’s Muang district, is one such teacher.

She says that lately teaching has become more enjoyable for her as the students were paying closer attention. Her Mathayom 1 students are a case in point. They all try to answer every question she asks and work on group activities together to find the correct answers.

Phuangphen says the atmosphere in her class and her students’ attitudes have changed since July 2006 when she completed a teacher-training programme provided by the Education Ministry with technical and development support from the World Bank.

Palm-Leaf Manuscripts Throw New Light on Ancient Kingdom Mon

From The Nation, published 24 September 2007:

Mon has become the forgotten kingdom and the Mon have for centuries had no place to call home.

The history of the Mon, however, as one of the most powerful nations of Southeast Asia has been told through the generations.Many fascinating stories in the Mon’s history and legends have been translated and retold in lots of papers - most have appeared in Burmese and Thai royal chronicles and many works on Mon studies in various languages were based on them.

Interestingly, the old Mon inscriptions on palm leaves found and read by today’s Mon scholars tell many other stories.

Goodwill Moment Over

From Bangkok Post, published 25 September 2007:

The brief bond between Iran and Israel over helping victims of last Sunday’s air crash in Phuket was curtly killed by the Iranian ambassador to Thailand, who even denied it had ever existed.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran does not recognise the Zionist regime let alone seek their assistance,” said ambassador Mohsen Pakaein in a statement issued late on Saturday to an official Iranian news agency.

Iranian officials are not allowed to use the word “Israel”.

The ambassador was clearly upset about news reports last week that officers from the Israeli embassy in Bangkok had offered help to chief Iranian consular official Safdar Shafiee.

The End of Term 1/2007

Here we are at the end of the term — my first full term teaching English in Thailand. After a vigorous series of revision last week (and parties for the students on Friday) all that remains are for the final exams starting tomorrow. The kids will sit for their tests in the various English-taught subjects (including Maths, Science, Computer, and Health) on Monday and Tuesday and will take the Thai exams on Wednesday before leaving for their holidays. The teachers will continue working on Thursday and Friday marking exams, completing a mountain of assessment forms, and writing comments in the students’ report books. If it’s anything like the end of the Mid-Term exam week, the majority of teachers will have nothing at all to do on Friday (a group of us are planning to catch up on some NFL games).

Including the weekends, “newbies” such as myself will have a ten-day break from working before reporting back for the two-and-a-half week Special Course. This will be similar to the Summer Course last March and April where the teaching days are short and the fun factor is higher than the regular term. As for myself, I’m not actually teaching a class in October as I’ve been recruited to write two textbooks for Term 2 (more on this in a bit).

End of Term Comments

From the Teacher in Thailand blog, published 21 September 2007:

As the end of the first term approaches, teachers around Thailand have to write comments on their students’ behaviour and knowledge of the subjects taught. Here are a few ‘templates’.

______ is a quiet, well-behaved student who stays most of the times on task. He had good spelling results during our weekly spelling tests. When asked, he is able to answer the teacher’s questions correctly. In the future I would like ______ to speak up more and put up his hand more often during the lesson. Although he knows the answer to the teacher’s questions, he almost never puts up his hand. Keep up the good work, ______!

______ is a pleasure to teach. He is well-behaved and always ready to help the teachers whenever they need help. ______’s writing skills have improved a lot during this semester, fact which can be seen in his wonderful journal. He also had excellent results in our weekly spelling tests. He always submitted his homework on time. In the future I would like ______ to speak up more, and volunteered more often when teacher asks questions. Keep up the good work, ______!

The NFL in Thailand!

In almost 18 months living in Thailand, I’ve only been able to watch two American football games. The first was a Chiefs game a friend had sent over on DVD; this particular game was actually considered one of the most boring NFL matches ever played and the only score came late in the fourth quarter. This past February, I dragged myself to a bar near the Sea Gypsy village in Rawai at six in the morning in order to watch the Super Bowl. That was interesting as my friend, Doug, and I were the only Americans there and we were served a traditional English breakfast at halftime. Again, it wasn’t the most exciting of games (although I did enjoy the halftime show, courtesy of Prince) and I was definitely left hungering for more. I considered forking over for a satellite dish when we moved to the new house but then ESPN inexplicably replaced what few NFL games they had planned to air with bull-riding of all things!

Last Words Before the Crash ‘Request Your Intention’ ‘Landing’

From The Nation, published 19 September 2007:

Revelation of pilot’s last word shed little light as it contradicts another report that he wanted to turn back

Before the information is extracted from the black boxes of the ill-fated One-Two-Go plane that crashed in Phuket on Sunday, the dispute over what caused Flight OG 269 to hit the runway and to break in two continues.

Three major parties involved - the budget airline itself, the air traffic control at Phuket airport, and weather forecast officials - are giving conflicting information on what actually went wrong.

After informing Flight OG 269 about the bad weather situation, the airport and runway conditions, which were clear for landing, the air traffic controller asked the Indonesian pilot for a confirmation of his decision, according to Kumtorn Sirikorn, executive vice president of Aeronautical Radio of Thailand.

Some Important Questions Answered

From The Nation, published 19 September 2007:

1. Could the plane have re-ascended when the landing gear was not deployed?

Chaisak Angsuwan, director-general of the Air Transport Department, said he had confirmed that the landing gear was not deployed while the pilot was trying to climb again.A commercial pilot, who asked to not be named, said it was not possible that the pilot would retract the landing gear while ascending as it was counter to basic flight procedure.

2. How did wind shear affect the landing?

Kamthorn Sirikorn, a senior Aerothai official, said air traffic controllers had informed the pilot about the 40-knot wind shear above the runway. It should have been solely the pilot’s decision to land that resulted in the accident. Kamthorn said he was not sure whether mechanical failure or bad weather contributed to the crash.

A weather forecast official said the wind speed at 40 knots was quite powerful but that it was regular, and an experienced and decisive pilot should land the plane safely under such circumstances.

3. Did the plane perform a go-around before attempting to land?

Kamthorn said no confirmation on that was available. But news reports said passengers on board another flight said they saw OG-269 perform a go-around twice while all survivors of OG-269 said their aircraft did not perform a go-around.

4. Did the pilot warn the passengers about poor visibility and a possible go-around before landing?

No, according to the survivors.

5. Did any other flights abort their landing or request landing at nearby airports?

Phornchai Ua-aree, director of Phuket airport, said all flights arriving at Phuket before OG-269 landed as usual, but said he did not remember how many exactly.

News reports quoted control tower records of conversation as saying that all last three flights arriving at Phuket landed as scheduled, before 3.50pm when OG-269 crashed.

6. Is Phuket airport difficult to land at?

The unnamed pilot said the instrument landing system (ILS) at Phuket airport had a technical limitation - it could not fully guide aircraft to land automatically. Pilots are still required to land their planes manually once they fly past a ridge leading to the runway.

And given the azimuth alignment of the runway at around two degrees to the left, pilots are required to compensate their glide path around two degrees to the right, or their planes could possibly over-steer to the left during landing. The over-steering problem is okay if the runway is not wet and visibility is high. But what always follows during heavy rains at Phuket airport is a strong wind shear, which can reposition planes’ approach to the tarmac during landing, he said.

Survivors Unable to Sleep, Troubled by Memories of Crash

From The Nation, published 19 September 2007:

Six victims of Sunday’s plane crash at Phuket airport remained in a critical condition Tuesday.

One was airlifted from Phuket to Bangkok Tuesday afternoon for further treatment. Jones Beethan, 22, was transferred from Bangkok Hospital Phuket to a burns unit at the Bangkok Hospital.Others seriously injured are Sara Whittington, from the Netherlands; Christopher Cooley, from Britain; Thibud Lamare, from France; and Thai nationals Chainarong Maharae and Orasilp Saengboonruang. Orasilp was the chief flight attendant on the plane.

The accident claimed 89 lives and injured 41 people.

Of the survivors, 30 remain in hospital. Most have been treated at the Bangkok Hospital Phuket.

One Year After Coup, Thai Economy is Mired in Uncertainty

From AFP, published 19 September 2007:

BANGKOK (AFP) — One year after Thailand’s coup, the kingdom’s economic growth ranks among the lowest in Southeast Asia as domestic demand and investment have slumped due to political uncertainty, analysts said.

The economy is expected to rise over four percent this year, far below average growth of 5.6 percent in the region led by Indonesia, Singapore and booming Vietnam, according to the Asian Development Bank.

Political turmoil has gripped Thailand since early 2006, when protests erupted demanding the resignation of prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was accused of abuse of power and corruption.

But last September’s bloodless coup, which toppled Thaksin’s government, failed to end the political deadlock and instead pushed the nation into deeper uncertainty, slowing already wobbly economic activities, analysts said.