Things aren’t going so well for Thai students, at least according to the very official-sounding International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement.
That monitoring body released a report earlier this month outlining Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), in which Thai students ranked 28th of the 52 countries surveyed in terms of their aptitude for math and science.
To make matters worse, that ranking actually represents a decline from the last TIMSS report, released in 2008, in which Thai students ranked 25th.
According to the Bangkok Post, Thailand has participated in the survey since 1995 and the ranking of Thai students has slipped with each successive outing.
As is customary when this kind of a report surfaces, the various parties involved get to partake in a vigorous game of “Who Gets Stuck With the Blame?” and this time around the big losers seem to be Thailand’s teacher.
The TIMSS report found that Thailand’s teachers, though many hold advanced degrees, are frequently called on to teach subjects other than those in which they majored, bringing down the quality of the country’s educational offerings.
As if adding insult to injury, the countries that topped this year’s TIMSS report are all in Thailand’s “hood,” so to speak.
Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea held the top three spots for both science and math, beating out Thailand by a spread of…uh, hold on. We’ll get this one, just give us a minute.
