On December 19th, the Hanban Representative Office in Thailand held a work meeting of volunteer Chinese language teachers in Thailand (2018-2019) in Bangkok. 20 members, including representatives of educational commissions and the Office of the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Education of Thailand, and staff of the Hanban Representative Office in Thailand, attended the meeting.
Meeting site
Both China and Thailand agreed that Chinese language education in Thailand stands in a critical period of transition from scale expansion to connotation improvement, with good opportunities for development and new difficulties and challenges. The two sides held several rounds of negotiations on the theme of “improving the quality of Chinese language teaching in Thailand and giving full play to the positive role of volunteer Chinese language teachers in applying mother tongue teaching”, and decided to regulate the qualifications of volunteer Chinese language teachers and take the amount of weekly class hours of Chinese language as an important indicator for assessing the acceptance schools of volunteer Chinese language teachers.
In order to achieve the smooth connection of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Thailand 4.0 Strategy, conform to the development needs of the times and improve modern Chinese language teaching skills and abilities in Thailand, China and Thailand discussed the joint holding of a Chinese language teaching micro-course contest that transforms the traditional modes of teaching and competition and moves the classroom teaching from the “blackboard” to the “screen”. This measure will also establish a broader stage for the mutual learning of teaching skills between Chinese language teachers and volunteers in Thailand.
Ms. Anukul Kanchanasook, Director of Chinese Language Office of Basic Education Commission of Ministry of Education of Thailand, delivering a speech
Thailand will take up the 33rd ASEAN rotating presidency in 2019. Taking this as an opportunity, the Hanban Representative Office in Thailand proposed to work with Thai Ministry of Education to promote the holding of the ASEAN regional Chinese language contest in Thailand. This proposal received a positive response from the educational commissions of Thai’s Ministry of Education, with a view to giving full play to the leading role of Chinese language teaching of Thailand in Southeast Asia.
Representatives from all educational commissions expressed that this meeting had discussed important issues in a timely and effective manner, and clearly defined the direction of future work. It will promote the cooperation and coordinated development of the two sides in more areas. Looking into the future, both China and Thailand are willing to work together and jointly write a new chapter for the close relationship between China and Thailand.
Mr. Chalermchai Wasasiri, Director of Educational Development Office of Private Education Commission of Ministry of Education of Thailand, delivering a speech
Group photo
Up to now, Thailand has totally set up 16 Confucius Institutes and 20 Confucius Classrooms, with more than 17,000 volunteer Chinese language teachers teaching in over 1,000 universities, primary and secondary schools in 73 provinces in Thailand. The students who learn Chinese in these schools have also grown rapidly to more than one million. In 2017, the project of volunteer Chinese language teachers was granted the Thailand Education Contribution Award presented by Mr. Teerakiat Jareonsettasin, Minister of Thai Education. He thanked Hanban for providing teaching force of Chinese language to Thailand and supporting the development and research of Chinese language discipline in Thailand. After the occurrence of Phuket boat accident in July 5th, 2018, 12 volunteer Chinese language teachers rushed to the front line of the accident and set up a China volunteer Chinese language teacher service desk to provide services to the families of the victims and the wounded, 24 hours a day, practicing the spirit of volunteer service with practical actions.
A series of fruitful results have been made in the Chinese language teaching in Thailand, which benefited from the strong support of the Thai royal family and the government, as well as the sincere cooperation and close coordination between the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and the Ministry of Education of Thailand. (cited and source from Confucius Institute Headquarters)