I was interested to read that a lot of teachers constantly repeat that we do not understand Thai culture when students fail during their exams and lets face it if Thai students were to sit an exam in any other country they would fail miserably.

I have many students that fail and one particular class I was supposed to teach had never turned up to a class, never took a test or exam and I failed them all. I was told that I could not fail them by the head of year and by the director of the school and that I would have to give them minimal scores. I refused to comply with this request and said "If students don't turn up for classes or my exam, how can I give them a grade?" I also said "If you want to give them a passing grade then that is your perogative as I will not".

The powers that be then at this school alloed and changed all of the students grades to minimum passes. I find it hard to believe that this is allowed by the school and if this is how the Thai education system is structured then it needs a massive overhaul to stop these kinds of things happening and giving false figures for the educational levels of Thai students. If this continues the only ones who will suffer are the students and every future generation. I was shocked and appauled when the Thai teachers said that I just did not understand Thai culture. I can honestly say that if this is Thai culture then you can keep it because where I come from we call it cheating and fixing the figures for the MOE.

Any teacher or director of an institution with a conscience would not allow this to happen for the sake of the students. I do not see any benefit in cheating to make figures look good or to blame the failures in the education system on visiting teachers because the system is failing miserably.

Get rid of this stupid no fail policy and let us do our jobs and give the students the incentive to learn and use the brains that God gave them rather than letting them play the system and getting a pass even though they do nothing to earn it. What message are we giving our future generations if we let them believe that they get everthing for free? Stop putting the blame on visiting teachers and start correcting the problems.

Dr John Smith