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| 8.2 Innovations in Teacher Development |
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After the master plan of teacher reform had been approved by the Council of Ministers, the Teacher Education Reform Office (TERO) was established in 1997 to take the responsibility for its implementation. Recognizing the urgency to overhaul the whole teacher education system and to upgrade the teaching profession, TERO has set as its top priority to turn the unpopular teaching profession into one of the most desirable careers in the country. This can be realized by rewarding and upgrading the current working teachers and getting the best students to become teachers. Consequently, TERO has introduced 5 key innovative programmes for the reform of teachers and teacher education as follows : 1) National Teacher Awards To keep outstanding teachers in teaching, they must be honoured for their achievement and encouraged to help raising the teaching quality of other teachers. About 1 percent (1,200 teachers) of the current teachers selected as National Teachers will be asked to undertake teaching innovation projects. A National Teacher Award consists of a supplement salary of 10,000 Baht/month, a project expense of 100,000 Baht/year and the school at which the teacher's work will be supported by a sum of 200,000 Baht so that the school can promote the work of the National Teacher. The extension or termination of an award will be made based on the evaluation of each National Teacher's achievement. The National Teacher Award is thus both a prize for past accomplishment and a grant to carry out a new project on improving quality teaching and quality education. 2) Academic Coupons Most teachers will be encouraged to take part in in-service training regularly by a special allowance carrying a value of 2 percent of the teacher's annual salary but not more than 10,000 Baht. Training can be provided by government units, private sector or non-government organizations, locally or abroad. Teachers will have to bear any cost above the value of the coupons. A coupon is non-transferable and non-exchangeable if it is not used within two years. |
