Teach For Thailand (TFT) is a non-profit organisation which is a part of the Teach For All network. Working with local schools, the organisation hand-picks individuals of all academic disciplines to become "change agents" through teaching at needy schools in Bangkok. Now in its second year, the operation is thriving.
The nascent educational programme, in collaboration with Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, last year recruited a total of 33 individuals — most of them fresh college graduates — from more than 800 applicants to become paid teachers in mathematics, science and English at secondary schools under a two-year term.
All of the 14 participating schools are called "extended opportunity schools". They are assigned such status through a 2007 policy by the Ministry of Education that picked out some primary schools to cover secondary education, to fit with the compulsory education of Mathayom 3. However, this type of school often lags far behind others due to a lack of qualified teachers, often serving as the nest for underprivileged students. A study in 2013 also revealed that students from these schools scored far less behind students from other schools at the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa).
Once admitted to the programme, TFT's recruits receive six weeks of intensive training developed by the Faculty of Education at Chulalongkorn University, before being sent off to their assigned schools. While being accountable for more than 170 pupils and equipped with on-the-job training, a TFT teaching fellow's "leadership" is expected to be tempered in return.
Vichitapol Pholpoke, TFT's founder, said that he is satisfied with the work in progress although the results from the year-end exam aimed at testing the students nurtured by the TFT corps of their basic knowledge from elementary education remain largely weak. The results show that roughly 72% from the sampling group of 548 students still didn't pass the mathematics test and roughly 62% of the sample group of 479 students didn't pass the English test.
"If you ask me whether we have done something to create change like we expected to, I think we have," Vichitapol said. "But after just one year, to expect a 100% increase in exams like Onet [Ordinary National Education Test], it's impossible. It's difficult to see that kind of change overnight."
What TFT wishes to see more is the use of its holistic model called "Classroom Impact Model", which encompasses character strengths (grit, integrity, curiosity), essential skills (critical thinking, communication, collaboration), and academic achievement (academic and knowledge). Other factors such as classroom participation, attendance rates and drop-out rates are also taken into account.
"We want to create a strong foundation so that students can leverage it how they wish," Vicitaphol said. "If they would like to pursue higher education or vocational education, they will be encouraged to do so either way."
Vichitapol Pholpoke, founder of TFT.
TFT recently finished recruiting the next batch of teachers, in which it saw the number of applicants almost double from last year despite its partner, Teach For America, going through a decline in applicants. At the same time the current fellows still have one more year to go, with the new school semester having just started.
Pattheera Panitsuk, a 28 year-old TFT fellow, has been teaching mathematics at Pracharatbamphen School in Huai Khwang. She was a computer auditor and a university lecturer before. She decided to apply to TFT because she wanted to live a meaningful life.
According to Pattheera, most of her students live in slums. Their parents work back-breaking labour jobs, are poorly educated and incapable of teaching their kids homework. These kids, therefore, grew up having no one to aspire to become and no goals in their lives. In one of the teacher reports that asked the students in one classroom for their dream jobs, more than half of them answered a motorcycle taxi driver.
"When I started, I felt that I got to fulfil my purpose to give back to society," Pattheera said. "I thought that if I spend time here for two years trying to bring them up, I would really be able to change them."
One of the main challenges that Pattheera encountered at the beginning was the students' behaviour. Many of her students, as she described, misbehaved a lot and were recalcitrant at their best. After some time as well as a few sobs of despair, Pattheera was able to earn the kids' trust and attention. Now she is ready to carry on her second year with more determination.
Without help, however, it might have been impossible for the fellows to make it. Therefore, guiding each of the fellows through the struggles is a teacher of the same specialised subject joining as a mentor, arranged by the TFT.
The job of the mentors is to make sure the fellows know what to expect from the children.
Sasipimon Wangratanakorn, a mathematics teacher at school and the mentor of Pattheera, said she had never doubted the competence and the knowledge of the fellows but she had to remind them of the real situation of the kids they were facing as the fellows had only had field experience of teaching in a mock-up classroom during their training.
"First of all, they needed to understand the context of the students at school who the fellows had not yet been in touch with," Sasipimon said. "Sometimes the fellows needed to lower their expectations." However, Sasipimon is more than blessed that the TFT fellows came along.
"While my mentee may have learned from my guidance, I have learned a lot of new teaching methods from her too," Sasipimon said. "Sometimes she has new or energetic ways of teaching the kids which I have long forgotten as a teacher."
Fun, interactive styles of teaching are of course something that the fellows have never missed to incorporate into their teaching. But while many kids have been enjoying the fellows' presence at their school enthusing that they are more enjoyable and less stern than their non-TFT teachers, some see their TFT teachers to be more than that. Supanneka Chulam, a 15 year-old Mathayom 3 student, likes to turn to the new teachers when she has problems. "The TFT teachers understand us, understand that we are teenagers," Supanneka said. "Most teachers don't understand kids. But the TFT teachers listen to our problems and help us."
Pattheera Panitsuk, centre, with fellow TFT teachers Pornwimol Sawangchom, left, and Sireetorn Arunrakthavon, and their students.
