Sarasas Ektra School
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| Sarasas Ektra School | |
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| symbol of the school
AGE QUOD AGIS
(ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST ) |
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| Location | |
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| 336/7 Sathupradit Soi 20 , Bangpongpang , Yannawa , Bangkok 10120 Thailand |
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| Information | |
| Head of school | Mr.Pisut Yongkamol |
| Students | approximately 2900 (2007 academic year) |
| Type | bilingual |
| Grades | 1–12 (KG.1-3) |
| Campus | Urban |
| Color(s) | Blue-Yellow |
| Established | 1995 |
| Homepage | http://www.ektra.ac.th |
Sarasas Ektra School is a Catholic bilingual co-educational school located in Central Bangkok. In 1995, it became the first bilingual school to be approved as such by the Ministry of Education in Thailand. As of 2007, the school has approximately 2900 students, and conducts a fully bilingual program in Thai and English from Kindergarten 1 (3 year-olds) to Matayom 6 (17 year-olds).
Sarasas Ektra is one of 19 schools in the Sarasas Affiliation, 10 of which have bilingual programmes.
Contents |
[edit] Curriculum
The model of bilingual education applied at Sarasas Ektra is known as parallel immersion. Students are taught three key learning areas (Mathematics, Science and Social Studies) in both English and Thai - learning the content first in the mother tongue (Thai) and then covering the same or similar content in English. The Thai and English lessons are taught by different teachers and no language-switching occurs in either lesson. It is expected that the Thai-medium lesson will provide content and conceptual knowledge at a deeper level than the English lesson, as the former is in the students' first language. The English-medium lesson will give more emphasis to the language specific to the content. On completion of schooling at Sarasas Ektra, students are expected to be equally able to pursue higher education in Thai-medium or English-medium courses.
This model has also been described as "mother-tongue content instruction followed by English for academic purposes". However, a school-based study in 2006 indicated that this is not really accurate. The study revealed that English-medium teachers do not regard the subject content merely as a vehicle for teaching language, but as having value in its own right.
[edit] Criticisms and realities
It has been argued that because the core subjects are taught in both languages following similar curriculum requirements (Thai national curriculum - education standards), there is not enough time given to academic input in contrast to language development. However, the school has found that this does not really constitute a problem. The cognitive and linguistic benefits of bilingual learning appear to outweigh any disadvantages that might result from repetition of academic content. In any case, the school would argue that there is sufficient flexibility in its outcomes-based curriculum to ensure that the English-medium lessons are not simply repetition of the Thai lessons. Rather, they cover the same or similar units and topics, but in a different way. Content detail, teaching methods and language vary from that which occurs in the Thai classes and the language transfer that occurs as a matter of course in bilingual learning is believed to be academically as well as linguistically beneficial.
However, it does appear that the attainment of academic bilingualism to a high level takes rather a long time. It is hard to quantify, as studies have not been done on the amount of time required for students in Thai-English bilingual programs to attain the levels attained by students in, e.g. French-English bilingual programs. However, it is likely that it would take longer for Thai-speaking students to attain those levels because of greater language distance between Thai and English than between a European language and English. As a result, students who are likely to do well in a Thai-English bilingual program are more likely to have started bilingual education at an early age or have begun later but with a better than average background in English at the time.
In fact, results of national tests for English, Thai, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies for students in Year 6, 9 and 12 show that Sarasas Ektra students score very highly in English, clearly above the national and school district mean in Thai and above or at about the mean in the other subjects. (All subjects other than English are tested in Thai.)
[edit] The Music Program
Sarasas Ektra has currently 45 music teachers at the school, mainly Thai, but including 9 Filipinos and one Italian. All students are expected to learn at least one instrument, preferably two, to a good level of competence. The school has a 130+ piece traditional orchestra, as well as a classical orchestra, strings orchestra, wind ensembles, brass bands, choir, etc.
Music is felt to be complementary to the bilingual program as another form of expression and a contributor to cognitive and emotional health.
[edit] Multiple Intelligences
From Kindergarten to Year 9, there are regular activities designed to discover and express students' different intelligences. The program is based on Professor Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences framework and the outcomes are presented to parents each year in the form of performances and displays of students' work on a given theme.
[edit] Administration and Staff
The school is managed by the Director, Mr Pisut Yongkamol (M.Ed Queensland U.T.) and a team of Thai Vice-Directors supported by a foreign administration team. There are more than 200 Thai teachers and just over 100 foreign teachers.
Of the foreign teachers, just under half are from the BANA countries (Britain, Australia/NZ, North America, i.e. USA & Canada). About 30% are from the Philippines (including the 9 Filipino music teachers). The remainder are from other European and African nations and a small number of highly English-competent Thais teach in the English-medium program. Japanese and Chinese teachers are employed to teach those languages.
