When the schools in Thailand closed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, students lost a lot of instructional time. The schools struggled to provide instruction online, but many lacked the necessary equipment and teachers lacked experience with developing online lessons. Many students were unable to get online. Others were simply not motivated enough to show up consistently. As a result, many students fell behind.
This was the case in countries around the world. As a consequence, England, the Netherlands, Australia, and the US are all considering creating national tutoring programmes to help students make up for that learning loss. Thailand should do the same.
Tutoring is among the most effective education interventions ever to be subjected to rigorous evaluation. Research shows that in-school tutoring is one of the most effective ways to help students make progress. And tutoring need not be expensive if older students, pre-service teachers, and adult volunteers are recruited as tutors.
When the pandemic is over, Thai schools should not just return to the way things were before the pandemic as the old ways were not so good. The World Bank reported in 2018 that nearly 40% of Thai lower secondary students were functionally illiterate in Thai. If you are functionally illiterate, you cannot read a newspaper and you cannot fill out a job application. You are doomed to a life of poverty.
When asked about this problem, teachers say students do not like to read, but the reality is that they have not been taught to read or write Thai adequately. Similarly, large numbers of lower secondary students struggle in mathematics; they cannot multiply or divide. As a consequence, they cannot take advantage of the new opportunities being created in STEM fields. They also are the victims of poor teaching. And the schools do little to help students who struggle to read or to multiply.
Thailand has managed the Covid-19 pandemic better than most countries, and as a result, there have been fewer cases and fewer deaths from the virus. Now Thailand's leaders must show the same resolve and focus to address the crisis in education.
Tutoring could be the solution. All students would benefit from small group instruction by a tutor. There are many reasons to be optimistic that tutoring would have positive effects on students' academic skills and other benefits as well. Positive, caring relationships with tutors would support students' social-emotional development, enhance their attachment to school, increase their motivation to learn, and create relationships with older peers. Tutoring would promote the tutors' own academic and social emotional development. It also would provide employment opportunities for youth, and expand the pipeline of potential educators in rural communities. Few educational interventions offer such a range of potential returns.
Below we offer some principles for the design of a tutoring programme for Thailand.
Tutoring should be a school-wide programme. All students can benefit from tutoring. School-wide programmes would not stigmatise low-performing students in need of remediation. Tutoring all students would foster a collective commitment among school staff because tutoring would be seen as a core practice.
Tutoring should be done through small-group instruction. Effective tutoring programmes maintain low student-to-tutor ratios -- no higher than 4:1 or 5:1. As ratios increase, tutoring becomes more affordable but requires tutors to divide their focus across multiple students and teach to the middle of the skill distribution.
Much of the tutoring should be conducted by older students. The research shows that peer tutoring is nearly as effective as tutoring by teachers, and it also shows that student tutors benefit from the experience. So we propose that pre-service teachers and other undergraduates be asked to serve as tutors for students in the upper secondary schools; that upper secondary students serve as tutors for lower secondary students; and that lower secondary students serve as tutors for primary students. Teachers can serve as mentors for the tutors.
Recent university graduates who have not found employment in the Covid economy might serve as tutors as well. In addition, educated adults in each community might also be trained as tutors. From these various sources, it should be possible to recruit and train an adequate number of tutors.
Tutoring should be a high-dosage intervention. Tutoring programmes that meet more frequently are more effective. The most successful tutoring programmes typically meet three to five times a week for at least 30 minutes per session.
Tutoring should be with the same tutor or tutors all year. Relationships are at the heart of tutoring. Effective programmes ensure continuity in tutor-student pairings to support the development of these relationships and allow tutors to learn about students' individual strengths and areas of instructional need.
Tutors should receive intensive, ongoing training. Tutors are more effective when supported by adequate training and ongoing coaching. Offering training and on-the-job feedback supports continual improvement.
Tutoring should be curriculum-based. Tutors would use materials aligned with the national curriculum and selected by the Ministry of Education. The success of peer tutoring in particular depends on high-quality instructional resources.
Tutoring should be done during the school day. Thailand might extend the school day in order to provide time for tutoring during the school schedule. Incorporating tutoring within the school schedule means that students will see it as an important part of their education.
The tutoring programme should be piloted for a semester in four low-performing provinces. As this is a new idea, it should be piloted and carefully evaluated before requiring all provinces to implement tutoring. We recommend that a pilot programme in reading, writing and mathematics be implemented in four provinces and in 25 primary schools per province for at least a semester.
Training programmes for tutors should be established in one or more universities in each province. The ministry should review the evidence about the effectiveness of tutoring programmes worldwide and select one or more of the models to use for the pilot programme. During the pilot phase, the ministry should work with universities in each province to prepare them to train tutors.
While the tutoring programme was addressing the needs of the current student population, the minister might appoint an expert committee to review the Thai-language curriculum, especially in grades K-4, and the teaching practices commonly used in these classrooms and make recommendations to strengthen language teaching in the early grades, including reforms in the training of teachers of Thai. Thailand should consider the example of Singapore and focus the early grades on language and mathematics. This could prevent the continuation of the crisis in literacy and mathematics.
The government also should invest in research and development to address these high-priority needs. For example, there are proven programmes for elementary students struggling in reading or mathematics, but they are not widely used in Thailand. And there are no similar programmes in Thai language. And while tutoring methods have been proven effective in England and the US, we need to evaluate these models for use in Thailand. Given the education emergency we face, this is the time to use our national innovative capacity to identify and solve big problems.
Tom Corcoran is senior adviser to the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Stem Education Center.
