TODAY’S HEADLINES: Hua Hin Invitational Cricket Sixes/Rising sea temps bring coral bleaching to Hua Hin/Thirsty elephants looking for new water sources/Thais hesitant to put their elephants to work in tourism/Spanish tourist arrivals on the increase /The Thai education system
Saturday, April 2 – Thursday, April 7
The 21st Bangkok Post Hua Hin Invitational Cricket Sixes tournament began Saturday at the Dusit Thani Hua Hin. Play continues through Thursday.
The 20 participating teams look particularly strong, especially in the top-tier Cup competition. The 2015 winners, Thai Thevada, will be boosted by the addition of national team star Bobby Raina and Victorian Mick Lewis. A strong Carlton CC line-up, two more experienced Melbourne clubs, and the Walton Warriors all have their eyes on the Cup.
Favorites in the Masters are Narayanganj CL from Bangladesh, whose gifted players with international experience are likely to be challenged by local crowd favorites, the Thai Masters.
Played in the grounds of the Dusit Thani Hotel Hua Hin since 1996, the Hua Hin International Sixes is a popular cricket tournament held in Thailand each year.
In two decades, the tournament has grown to become a key fixture in the Thailand cricket calendar, as “cricketers” and their families and friends came to Hua Hin for a week of fun and friendship.
The tournament is open to cricketers from all levels from club through to First class and currently runs three divisions, which includes Open age, Masters – Over 35 and Veterans Over 50.
The tournament launched Colin Miller onto the international stage and Jonathon Trott played here on his way to England to begin his career. It has showcased many other stars and interesting characters including Barry Richards, Allan Lamb, Mick Lewis, David Currie, Gary Chatfield, Johnno, Lou, and Kiwi.
Monday, April 4
14.40-15.20 Purple Helmets – Black Swans CC
15.20-16.00 Cluden CC – Larg Na Follies
16.00-16.40 Thai Thevada – Walton Warriors
18:00 – 02:00 Cricket Glamour Night – Hua Hin Brewery
Tuesday, April 5
09.20-10.00 Vets 1
10.40-11.20 Vets 3
10.40-11.20 Vets 9
10.40-11.20 Masters Semi-final (M1 v M4)
11:20 to 12:00 Hua Hin Gift
12.00-12.40 Cup 1st Semi-final (2 v 3 )
12.40-13.20 Cup 2nd Semi-final (1 v 4)
13.20-14.00 Super Vets Final
As the regulars say – ‘No Tom No Sixes.’ However, it must also be said that he only features in match statistics as the player with the all-time second highest number of ‘wides’ in an over – 9! For non-cricketers, a ‘wide’ is a ball which is bowled outside of the batters reach. That’s not a good look as the batting team scores a bonus run each time and the ball must be bowled again.
Coral bleaching has been detected at Koh Talu and Koh Leum in Prachuap Khiri Khan province for the first time, and rising water temperatures could make it worse, a marine biologist said.
Department of Marine and Coastal Resources senior biologist Nalinee Thongtham said the department found about 5% of the coral reef, mainly hump corals, has been bleached. She said sea temperatures are increasing and expected to exceed 30C in some places. If temperatures do not drop, coral bleaching will expand.
In the Andaman Sea, there are reports of color fading in some coral reefs, according to Nalinee. She said the strong influence of El Nino last year increased the temperature of seawater in the eastern Pacific. After temperatures dropped there, the mass of warming water moved to the western Pacific.
Further compounding the issue is the high seawater temperature associated with the summer, a significant factor stimulating coral bleaching.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States recently forecast that coastal coral in Thailand and the Indian Ocean may begin to bleach this year. Coral bleaching in Thailand was observed in 1991, 1995, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2010, with the worst case of the phenomenon in 2010. At that time, 66.9% of coral reefs in the northern Andaman Sea and 39% in the southern Andaman Sea died from bleaching, according to the marine department.
To limit the impacts, Nalinee said the department has been working with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation to possibly close some coral reef sites in the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea if bleaching becomes a crisis.
“By the end of this month, we will know whether things will get any worse. The departments will evaluate the situation before deciding if it is necessary to close the coral reef sites for rehabilitation,” she said.
The department has identified 90 sites that have a good capacity to recover from bleaching. Of the sites, some might be closed to promote coral reef expansion, which would help the bleached areas, she said.
These coral reefs may include ones in Satun province, Surin Island in Phangnga province, Koh Chang in Trat province and Koh Kram in Chon Buri province.
Closing the reefs would affect tourism revenue, but no estimate was available.
There are 75,590 rai of coral reef in the Gulf of Thailand, of which 5% are considered to be in fertile condition and 73,364 rai in the Andaman Sea with 6.4% in ideal condition.
Various government agencies say tourism and fishing-related activities are among the key factors killing the coral reefs. – Bangkok Post
A herd of wild elephants from Kaeng Krachan National Park has been spotted looking for water at Pa La Oo forest in Prachuap Khiri Khan’s Hua Hin district, in the wake of a severe drought in the area.
A helicopter survey on the park’s inner forest area three days earlier had found all the creeks dried up, while small water sources in Pa La Oo and the nearby Pa Deng forest were drastically lower.
Despite the authority’s operation the following day to re-fill water sources in the national park with 100,000 litres of water, between 20 and 40 elephants from the park’s inner area have been seeking water at Pa La Oo and Pa Deng every evening.
This prompted park chief Kamon Nuanyai to instruct officials to monitor the herd in a bid to prevent them straying into nearby farmlands, while soldiers from the 9th Infantry Division have been refilling park water sources.
Meanwhile, a villager in Surat Thani’s Khiri Ratthanikhom district was shocked to find a 30-kilogram bearcat in her home compound early yesterday morning. Following a complaint filed by homeowner Panan Khampira, police, a district veterinarian and rescue workers took one hour to capture the animal.
It is thought the animal was looking for food because of a lack of water in the Khlongyan Wildlife Sanctuary after no rain has fallen there for three months.
The animal, thought to be seven years old, will be sent to the Phang Nga Wildlife Research Station for rehabilitation and returned to the forest, sanctuary official Noppadol Jitthiang said. – The Nation
In Mae Sot, a district in western Thailand, man and elephant have long co-existed. Log-cutters would use the magnificent animals as beasts of burden. But the number of elephants in the district is rapidly declining as Thailand’s forestry business diminishes.
The country’s administrative bodies are now working on promoting ecotourism in Mae Sot and neighboring areas, aiming to preserve the mahout culture.
Come with me on a visit to a Mae Sot village. It’s March 13, and we’ve awoken early to go see a ceremony of sorts. Twenty-nine elephants show up, the largest sitting right in front of an altar, for a ritual sprinkling of herb-purified holy water. Once blessed, they line up along a table — it is a very long table — and enjoy a feast of bananas, melons and other fruit. They mind their table manners as well as elephants can.
It’s Thai National Elephant Day, an annual opportunity to thank and treat these valuable, leathery assets. Around this time of year, the middle of Thailand’s hot season, mahouts and farmers traditionally give their chang a day off, and villages prepare feasts for them. Thailand’s government made the day of commemoration official in 1998.
Anake Phrommee, head of an administrative office in Mae Ku, a sub district of Mae Sot, is at the ceremony. When he gets up to speak, he reminds those gathered that elephants have long been companions to locals as well as part of the region’s traditions and culture. “They could be valuable tourism assets here,” he ventures.
Elephants once comprised a major workforce in Thailand. But after 1989, when the government banned the felling of forest trees, demand for the beasts’ labor sharply declined.
And as Thailand grew richer, a new load-carrying competitor showed up: motor vehicles. In order to make ends meet, villagers gave up keeping elephants and sold off their herds.
Two decades ago, 2,000 chang lived across Mae Sot and four other districts. Today, that number has dropped to 200 or so.
Manop Silapaprison, a farmer in his 40s, has sold nine of his elephants in total. “They are part of our family,” he said, “but we have to sell them at times.”
His 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter have grown up playing with three child elephants that are still with the family.
Elephants are expensive farmhands. Each one requires 150kg of food and 100 liters of water a day. Manop earns 1 million baht ($28,380) a year. He can make that much, maybe more, by selling a single elephant.
Like Manop, many people in western Thailand regard their elephants as members of their families and have been slow to put them to work in the tourism trade.
Yet, if man and beast are to preserve their family ties, a breakthrough in this regard is needed, says Suvichan Pattanaprival, a lecturer at Bodhivijjalaya Collage.
Municipalities and Thailand’s tourism authority together are mulling a kind of elephant-focused ecotourism that would introduce foreigners to a habitat that people and chang share. Anake from the Mae Ku administrative office expects tours to begin by the end of this year.
However, there is still a reluctance. While elephants travel in herds, tourists tend to come in hordes. And there is fear that these hordes could run roughshod over what remains of mahout traditions and culture.
When elephant-centered ecotourism arrives, it will have to strike a delicate balance if it is to preserve the region’s past and future. – asia.nikkei.com
The number of Spanish tourists visiting Thailand has risen by almost 30 per cent this year while the number of Russian tourists continues to rapidly decline, according to the latest figures released by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).
Despite a drop in the overall number of European visitors to Thailand by about 9 percent, there was a 28 percent rise in the number of tourists from the Iberian Peninsula this year. However, Russian tourist numbers dropped by a dramatic 45 percent.
“About 5.5 million European tourists visited Thailand in 2015, which is nine per cent lower than last year. Overall tourism revenue was 406,214 million baht, which is a three per cent decrease compared to last year,” said Tanes Petsuwan, TAT Executive Director for Europe, Africa and Middle East.
Although the exact figures for Phuket have yet to be released, officials estimated that the decline in Europeans visiting the province was not significant.
“The overall decrease in European tourist numbers is because of the economic and political crisis they have been facing for the past few years, which is out of our control. However, the one factor we can control is tourist behavior,” Anoma Wongyai, director of the TAT Phuket Office said.
Ms Anoma said that one of the major factors impacting European tourist numbers in Phuket is the variety of destination choices outside of Phuket.
“European tourists visit other places in Thailand or the Andaman region, but do not visit Phuket as often. This is an important situation to rectify, as Europeans are considered quality tourists for Phuket so the TAT is working towards promoting a ‘regional’ tourism approach; packaging Phuket together with nearby regional destinations, which will be beneficial for all parties,” she said.
Over the next 12 months the TAT aims to generate higher first-time visitor numbers with public relations campaigns and by adding activities that will encourage visitors to stay longer and spend more, especially during the low season.
“Phuket has already been and will continue to follow some of these strategies, as well as focus on new ones,” Ms Anoma said.
“Our areas of focus include holding roadshows in European countries, inviting foreign tour operators to attend seminars, promoting more sports events and providing quality medical care to visitors, to name a few,” she said. – phuketgazette.net
Thailand is one of the biggest business centers in Southeast Asia. It plays a major role in world tourism and it serves a regional transit hub to other ASEAN nations. All these successes are the product of how the human resources have been nurtured and trained.
To understand the underlying background, it is important to know the education system of the country, which is the source of success. This short educational background of Thailand was prepared originally to compare Thailand’s educational system to India’s. The literacy rate in Thailand is 96.7%.
Education System: Thailand has free education system to all her citizens up to 12 standard. Preprimary school takes 2-3 years. It is followed by 6 years elementary school, then another 6 years high school including upper secondary school. In the Thai education system, students will attend at primary schools up to class 6th standard. High schools start from class 7 to class 12. Schools in Thailand can be divided broadly into four categories. They are: Government School, Private school, International school and Buddhist school.
Apart from formal education, there is also non-formal education run by community centers with the help of government. The private to government school ratio is about 1:10, which means there is one private school for every 10 government schools.
Buddhist monasteries are learning centers about the Buddhist religion and there are 424 recognized Buddhist schools (Source: Wikipedia, 28 December, 2015). In higher education, the number of government and private universities are closer.
International schools are affiliated to education board of other countries such as Britain, USA, Canada and Australia, etc. International schools also belong to the private sector. International schools are for business class people and tuition fees are very expensive. There are many International schools in Thailand. They are truly international in terms of environment and management. Students are from different countries and teachers are also from different nationalities.
There has been a wave of English instruction class in the past 10-15 years. Under this influence, well-equipped schools run private classes inside the system of government schools. They are called MEP (Mini English Program) and EP (English Program). In the MEP program, most of the main subjects, such as mathematics and science, are taught in English. In the EP program, all the subjects are taught in English except Thai Language subjects.
Government schools provide free education, however, students pay a little amount of money as an admission fee. MEP and EP programs are private, so students pay tuition. There are two semesters in a year.
Discipline: Thai schools and universities are very strict about their school uniform. Uniforms and books are heavily discounted for government schools up to 12 standard.
Students will arrive at school before 8:00am. On a daily basis, 4-5 teachers will be standing at the gate and greet the students every day, taking turns one after another. Hair, nail, ear rings, shocks, and uniform must be checked carefully at the school gate. This is the beginning of school discipline of the day.
Students must bow down their head with folding hands. If the head bow is not polite enough and satisfactory, the teacher will correct to make it to acceptable gesture, which begins Thais’ respect for each other.
School assembly starts at 8 am and classes start from 8:30 am. Schools close at 4:30 pm. Students are not allowed wearing shoes inside the classroom. They must remove and keep them outside or inside the room but at the back of the room.
Discipline and politeness reflects to Thailand’s major attraction of tourists, which indirectly helps to boost tourism industry.
Classroom: Most of the classrooms install computers, projectors and TV, along with whiteboard. They use modern teaching and learning aids in the classroom. All the rooms will be fitted with fans, power outlet, microphone jack, wall speaker, overhead projector, air conditioners in most of the classrooms, smart-board, which is connected to main computer and it works as touchscreen.
Library is equipped with computerized system. Mini theater room is arranged with audio-visual, screen for seminar or meeting. There is usually an auditorium hall for every school for meetings, gatherings and to perform activities.
Computer literacy is good at school level and it is accessible to all students. When the students are in class 8th level they have done Microsoft Office, creating games using Microsoft Office, multimedia-sound and video editing, and basic programming and learning computer languages.
Every student has his own place and is accepted if he is good at any field, not only in an academic field. Hardly any students will fail. Whether good or bad, students are kept in the school and their education will be going on and on, and when it comes 9th standard, weaker students will be sorted out and they will be sent to vocational training schools. The school will not remove them straight by failing them.
Wave of English Learning: English learning and classes with English medium have been growing popular in Thailand over the past 10-15 years, with programs such as MEP (Mini English Program ) and EP (English Program). Most of the schools hire teachers from USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Filipinos constitute the largest number of teachers from Asian countries. Many language courses are offered at school. Popular foreign languages are English, Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean, and German.
Student Exchange Program: Foreign student exchange program through AFS (American Field Service of youth exchange program) which is an intercultural interaction program for one year exchanging students, is popular. Many foreign students come to Thailand, and many Thai students go to foreign countries under this program. The students are exposed to outsiders, and this reflects to their personal job, career, and business later in their future.
When European and American students return home, they get special credit points from the exchange program that is added to their overall high school scores. Most of these foreign students came to get cultural exposure and to have experience of a different culture before joining a university.
School – A Mini Community: Thais pay a lot of attention to extracurricular activities, sports, health education, and art. In Thailand, schools and social activities are closely related. All social activities and religious ceremonies will be organized and celebrated within the school system.
Students learn all kinds of skills, such as cooking, weaving, farming, recycling materials, through projects. In many schools, students will cook and sell food once a week inside the campus. Healthy life and sports are highly encouraged. Annual sports days are celebrated around the same time in many schools all over Thailand. In the same way, university sports days are also celebrated almost at the same time throughout the whole country but in different time from high school.
School children run banks inside school and they learn money management from early age. Art, music, handicraft, hydroponic plantation, etc., are actively participated in by students. School is a place for social gathering and it is the place where children love to come and play. All school children have their lunch at school, so every school manages its school canteen very well.
Entry to University: There is no board exam to complete high school. Every school will conduct their own examinations. However, there is a test called O-NET (Ordinary National Educational Test) to see the quality of students. There is no pass or fail score for this test. Students who are studying in their final year in primary school, that is class 6, and high school students of class 9, class 12 students must take this test.
Admission to universities or colleges is managed through a central admission procedure. So, students who are learning 12 standard must take GAT (General Aptitude Test) for the purpose of university admission. However, there is also the university’s own test that can admit students apart from allotted students by the centralized admission procedure.
Scholarship and Student Loan: Scholarships are given to academically excellent students, socioeconomically backward families, as well as to those students who perform good work for the society. For higher studies, not only government institutions, there are many organizations and business offices that offer scholarship, with an agreement that the student will work for the organization or the office after finishing the course. Students loans are easy to find.
Students and Politics: There is election for students’ leadership selection but they don’t waste time in politics during study. In Thailand, politics and students don’t mix. Thai students never waste their study time for politics.
Teachers and Their Responsibility: Thai teachers are know their responsibility. They will come to school without any absence. The principal and head of department will strictly check their attendance. Colleagues will raise their voice if any teacher is missing from his/her duty. – kanglaonline.com