Chulalongkorn a paragon of egalitarianism

[BkkShaggy]

"First you try and get them into the good primary schools and then in Jr. High and High school move them into Satit or Trimudomsuksa schools. Once you get in there you are almost guarenteed a spot at the big 3. This is the old boys both. Each school dedicates about 25% of the seats to alumni kids to get into these top high schools , plus it would be politacally benificial to let in the sons of MP etc. The only way to get on this path to Chula is to have a famous name, be for old money or be extremely rich new money.

 

 

 

Last year 90% of graduates from Satit and Trimudom schools went to the the big 3 universities "

 

 

 

 

 

I guess I have to site one of my gfs experience.

 

 

 

She went to a good private school, no money involved but her parents (middle class) knew the right person (an alumni). Got in to Tram-udom-suksa school on her own ability - no donation involve, just 500 bahts to Alumni assoc.!!!! Then she passes entrance exam to study at Chula.

 

 

 

Entrance exam is very hard, believe me. But sadly the education at Chula and other 'good' public universities are not of a Western standard. That's why Thailand is still a develping country.

 

 

 

All Satit schools are set up to serve as 'an experimenting school' as the name 'satit' implies. Also the schools give first priority to children of their staff-university personnels-mostly professors/lecturers, as some kind of benifit.

 

 

 

"Last year 90% of graduates from Satit and Trimudom schools went to the the big 3 universities "

 

 

 

 

 

Students from those schools are already the cream of the crops by the selection system. No doubt they can pass the exam.

[jasmine]

You wrote ?I have a theory that this maybe so because the schools where the commoners grow up are under-funded and lack quality teachers.? And ?I hate to draw the wrong conclusion but I got the impression that the words of H.M. are not being carried out.?

 

 

 

The first statement above is true is most cases and the Thai schools up-country do not seem to get any better.

 

On the second statement, I am not sure how you interpret the H.M. words. The words of H.M. mean that everyone has an opportunity to be in the Chula or other universities or any government schools, no matter what social class one is from. If one is competent enough to pass the required entrance exam, one can study there. At one time in Thailand, not all people, no matter how competent, could study in any chosen school.

 

 

 

My grand father told me once when I was little that I should appreciate the King Rama the 5th (H.M. King Chulalongkorn) for many other reasons besides freeing the slaves, for an opportunity to have education for all people was one of his greatest gifts. I concur with my grand-father?s statement, my mother who is in her seventies now, grew up in such a small village that the schools were taught by monks and being a female she could not go.

 

 

 

I went to the Traim Udom High School (which was once used as the Chula?s prep) and the school?s location was and still is next to the Chula campus and most of my classmates went to Chula. I finished the 10th grade from up-country and passed the exam to study in that high school. The entrance exam that was taken to enter the Universities in Thailand is used

 

to determine what faculty and University ones could enter. Please be aware that I took the exam in the late 1960s and as far as I know, the rules have not changed much. Many of my high school classmates came from up-country, some actually the same town I grew up in, out of over 100 students, only 3 came from Issan and they were boys of Chinese descent. I want emphasize that, I and most of my friends went to public schools, NOT expensive private schools, grant it those days, entering a university was a little easier. I chose only one faculty in a university I wanted and was lucky enough to pass the exam. Most of my classmates in the university were from up-country, the South and North of Thailand mostly, only 2 I knew of were from Isaan and one of them was a pure Thai (Laotian) and he told me that where he was from he used to walk over an hour to school one way and never ate lunch, he went to the university with a small grant and his parents sold a big chunk of rice farm to educate him.

 

 

 

The people?s poverty, attitude and the school quality in many up-country schools make it very difficult for children to get good education and prepare them to become competitive and able them to enter into higher education. What I have noticed though, there are many more technical, and junior colleges now than there used to be when I was growing up. Also, there are student loans, which was never heard of when I was in Thailand. My brother owns a female dormitory in a town north of Bangkok and most of the girls are in technical schools and are from farmers? families and are using the government student loans. However, the attitude of paying the loans back is not so good but that is another issue. So I feel that there are parents who feel that education is important but the quality of education they can get does indeed need improvement. Many children cannot compete to enter such universities like Chula, Thammasart, Chiangmai U. and many other government universities, however, there are still some children (very small percentage) who come from a modest family, school and financial background who could compete, as I, some of my friends and my brother could. I knew a woman who went to school with me from the 3rd ? 8th whose parents owned a food shop and she had to help, it was a talk of town that she studied while cooking for the customers and in many tests, her grades were better than mine and I sure had time to study. The last time I heard, she is an engineer. I strongly feel that the attitude and sacrifice of parents affect the children education. I am not from a rich family but education was the most important part of growing up and my parents would have had gone into debt to have provided the means for education for my brother and me. My brother is doing his best now to provide for his 2 children?s education.

 

 

 

Cheers!

 

 

[jasmine]

Well, it is interesting, however please, I would like to know that it is a fact that a few stupid ones actually go there because of their parents. If they do get in, how can they catch up?

 

 

 

As I posted before that some people (sadly a small percentage) can compete, including competing in Universities in the West. I have friends who went to universities in Germany, France, UK and even Italy on government scholarships. Some Thais (and lots of foreign students whose first/primary language is not English) are required to take English classes or some particular tests to determine whether they can go directly to a University. I never had to repeat any classes (that I already took in Thailand) or took any special English classes. Most of my Thai friends did not either, except the ones studied in Germany and France. I had an opportunity to study in France, there was no way that I could understand the lectures because at that time I had only 2 and a half years of French but one of my friends who had just about the same grades in French as mine went, spent a year learning the language before entering the normal campus life and she did very well after that period.

 

 

 

Up to you to believe me or not, none of these people I mentioned was rich and there was no way that the parents can afford sending the kids to school in the West themselves.

 

 

 

Cheers!

[Guest lazyphil]

<<Say whosyourdaddy, it was yale>>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colonel Slade:You sharp shootin' me punk? Is that what you're doin'?

 

 

 

Does anyone remember this line from 'Scent of a Women'??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jasmine]

When I took the entrance exam, Thammasart and Chula were the ones most people wanted to go and 98% of my high school class passed the exam.

 

 

 

I have never read a study on comparing the US Universities and Thai ones, all I know is from my experience that my math and English writing skills were as good /better as most of my peers when studying for my first degree. Now, English comprehension did take some time especially studying Shakespeare. What has been serious problems(until today) were thinking and analysis skills because Thai schools and society do not encourage those skills, especially for females. The way the Thai schools teach the children to memorize and frown when children ask questions needs to be improved. I have been lucky that my father encouraged me to analyze, ask questions and think which caused me a few problems in school when I was little. I remember a science teacher trying to stop me from using the microscope (the only one) in the 9th grade (school in upcountry Thailand) because the school believed that girls did not need to be good in science but most of the boys were not even interested. Three of us girls banned together and told our parents and it was solved, we could use all the equipment!! Those 2 females are now, a doctor and a dentist (still in Thailand) and I do not do badly at all in computer science career in the USA.

 

 

 

Cheers!

[Brink15]

jasmine,

 

 

 

Please don't take my posts as an assertion that all Chula and Thammasat graduates are stupid, far from it. The implication that the education at these schools in vastly inferior to Western education was made by another poster.

 

 

 

What I did say is that I saw overwhelming evidence both in terms of the intellectual capacity of some Chula and Thammasat graduates and in the statements of many Thais, including two Mom Rajawongse, that some degrees of wealthy students have to be purchased.

 

 

 

My own personal experience is this, I have taught, as a scuba instructor, over 1,200 students. Of these close to 1,000 were Open Water Divers. As part of this course a student is required to learn basic physics and physiology. Nothing too strenuous, Boyle's law, Dalton's law, various lung over pressure injuries, etc. I have taught hundreds of children between the ages of 12 to 18. I have taught close to 100 Thais. The students I refer to were taught be me while working for a Thai oriented dive shop on Koh Phi Phi. Most of the students were between the ages of 20 to 30 years old. Most were upper middle to upper class. Most were university graduates. Most were very capable and could handle the course content. The materials were written in Thai. I had a handful of students who performed unbelievably poorly for college graduates. Upon dealing with the first group I was so surprised at their incompetence as to question the degrees with the Thai shop owner. This is when I first learned that not all degrees where earned.

 

 

 

This became something of interest to me and, therefore, I have since asked other Thais who would be in a position to know if this was true. The answer without exception was yes. The M.R.s I mentioned previously have also indicated this happens, although not frequently. Usually it is the child of an MP, Military upper echelon staff member, or a major corporate powerhouse. The allusion was that one could trace the funders of some buildings to parents of not so bright graduates.

 

 

 

That was my point. My only point. Read into it what you would like.

 

 

[BkkShaggy]

"This became something of interest to me and, therefore, I have since asked other Thais who would be in a position to know if this was true. The answer without exception was yes. The M.R.s I mentioned previously have also indicated this happens, although not frequently. Usually it is the child of an MP, Military upper echelon staff member, or a major corporate powerhouse. The allusion was that one could trace the funders of some buildings to parents of not so bright graduates. "

 

 

 

Next time you see your M.Rs friends, please ask the name of the schools they believe in receiving the money to let the rich children get it. This is the prove we all like to here. The private schools might be able to do it. But government schools might be a problem???

 

 

 

If you don't want to post the name of the school, you could send me email at bkkshaggy@yahoo.com

 

 

 

Thank you in advance.

[whosyourdaddy]

"But government schools might be a problem??? "

 

 

 

yes the goverment is free of corruption..??? I know for fact that one student paid a 250,000B entrance fee to one of these goverment schools