Acharn Terry (center back) took this lesson to students at Thammasat University who provided the feedback you'll read about below.

Few columns in the Bangkok Post get more reaction than Post Bag. Post Bag, of course, is made up of letters from our readers who give their opinions on just about anything you can think of. These opinions can be very controversial to say the least and they often provoke angry responses.

Below is an example of a recent letter which had Thai students as its subject. It came from a reader named John Smith who described a rather unusual experience he had at Chulalongkorn University.

I’m quite sure this letter caused some strong reactions among students and teachers in Thailand. What about you? Read the letter and consider the following points?

• Was the activity Mr Smith designed a fair one?
• Do you think it accurately measured the student’s knowledge of world affairs?
• Do you think Thai university students should be able to answer questions like the ones asked by Mr Smith?
• Can you make any conclusions about Thai education from Mr Smith’s experience?

Thammasat students discuss John Smith's letter

Recently, I took Mr Smith’s letter to a first-year English class at Thammasat University. I was very curious how they would react? Perhaps, I thought, since Thammasat and Chulalongkorn are such rivals, the Thammasat students might agree with Mr Smith that students at Chula are not very knowledgable. Of course, they would likely say that things are much better at Thammasat which, after all, is really Thailand’s top university.

Actually, I found that the Thammasat students I talked to were very supportive of their colleagues at Chula. They thought Mr Smith’s pop quiz was very unfair and totally unreliable because it did not accurately reflect the student’s knowledge. All it showed, they said, was that the small group of students Mr Smith talked to was not very interested in the news. This, in fact, is quite normal for students of this age. Besides, with their busy schedules, students – including Thammasat students – have little time to keep up with world events.

Suppose Mr Smith decides to make your school his next visit? Will you be able to answer his questions. You will if you read the Bangkok Post.

Below is a pop quiz for you to do. It contains some of the same questions that Mr Smith asked, but it also has new questions. The nice thing is that you should easily be able to pass the test with flying colours. Why? Because I have included news clippings from the Bangkok Post to help you. Use them to give yourself a perfect score.

1. What are the two warring sides in the conflict in Sri Lanka?
2. Who is the prime minister of India?
3. What is the name of the main political party in Malaysia’s government? What is the name of the main opposition party?
4. What is the capital of Bangladesh?
5. The letter mentioned two African countries, South Africa and Nigeria. Use the news clippings below to find the names of three more African countries.
6. In Osaka, Japan more than 12,000 people became ill recently after drinking Snow brand milk which was contaminated with bacteria. Snow brand is also available in Thai markets. What type of milk was contaminated and is any of it imported here from Japan?
7. Last Sunday, Tiger Woods won the British Open golf championship, thereby becoming the youngest man in history to win all four major golf tournaments during his career. How many other golfers have won a career "grand slam" and who are they?
8. Dr Suwan Pitsuwan is Thailand’s foreign minister. What is the position of foreign minister called in the United States and who presently holds that position?
9. The leaders of Israel and Palestine have been in the United States for more than two weeks for negotiations. What are their names?
10. Which Thai province has been suffering through what authorities are calling a "hundred-year rain"?

Awesome Woods slams his way into history St Andrews, Scotland, AFP A relentless Tiger Woods walked all over the best of the rest as he kept his appointment with destiny yesterday by winning the 129th British Open. The 24-year-old wrote himself into the history books when he became the youngest player ever to win all four Grand Slams. Only four other players have ever managed such a feat – Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus. Experts fear a population explosion Krishnan Guruswamy Associated Press India’s billionth baby, Aastha Arora, has never had a quiet moment since she was born on May 11. Every day, journalists show up unannounced at her cramped, one-bedroom house in a crowded neighbourhood to see the icon of India’s rising population. Today, the national Population Commission, which was set up on the day Aastha was born, will meet in the capital to discuss how to slow down India’s population clock. To show how serious the problem is, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee himself is heading the commission, which includes chief ministers of India’s 31 states and federal territories. Together the group accounts for 16% of the world’s population. Split Jerusalem focus of talks Jerusalem, AFP US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright meets with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, left, during peace talks at Camp David presidential retreat on Thursday, aided by interpreter Arafat Nabil Abu Rudineh, centre. Israel has agreed to a US proposal to share control over certain parts of occupied East Jerusalem with the Palestinians, a minister said yesterday, for the first time breaking the taboo of the "indivisibility" of the Holy City. But the revelations sparked a swift Palestinian insistence that it wanted all of East Jerusalem, and right wing accusations that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was breaking his promise to protect the "unity" of the city. Farms closing down Harare – White Zimbabwe farmers angry over police inaction in the face of growing lawlessness on land occupied by war veterans, may shut down en masse in protest, their union said yesterday. "A week has gone by since the government told the war veterans to get off. We’re seeing no action, so more widespread shutdowns are a possibility," said David Hasluck, director of the Commercial Farmers Union, which represents 4,000 white farmers. – AFP Bomb found ready to kill PM Dhaka, AFP A security curtain was thrown around Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed yesterday after army explosive experts found a powerful bomb apparently intended to kill her. The bomb was discovered near the dais from where she was to speak at a ceremony yesterday in Totalipara in her home district of Goplgani, 96km from the capital Dhaka, officials said. Milk scare no threat to Thai consumers A housewife examines the nutritional content of a can of Snow powdered milk at a Bangkok supermarket. The type of milk that made more than 12,000 people sick in Japan is not on sale here, the Thai subsidiary of the Japanese firm that makes it, said yesterday. Naoki Suzuki, managing director of Snow Brand Siam Co, said the Japanese product, Snow brand low-fat pasteurised fresh milk, was contaminated with bacteria during production at the company’s Osaka plant. That particular product was marketed in the Osaka area and not exported. Drainage channels give respite from inundation Yuthapong Kamnodnae Udon Thani The flood level in Udon Thani receded yesterday after a channel was dug across a highway and another at the base of a railway to drain water. A steel structure sent from Bangkok was positioned to reinforce a railway track, of which the base was removed to let water run through. Water was earlier discharged from Ban Chan reservoir to stop dykes from rupturing under the heavy rainwater. The water flooded into the town, causing the worst deluge in 100 years. Huge power outage Nairobi – Kenya on Saturday was plunged into an unprecedented power blackout following interruptions of the power supply from Uganda. The whole Kenyan capital was plunged into darkness for five hours on Saturday evening. A Kenya Power and Lighting Co official said a power line that brings electricity from Uganda’s Owen Falls had collapsed inside Uganda. – AFP Censorship reintroduced Colombo, Reuters Sri Lanka has reintroduced censorship on the local and foreign media under a new set of regulations, days after the Supreme Court ruled that the previous censorship was illegal. Chief censor Ariya Rubashinghe said that local media was expected to exercise self-restraint while reporting anything related to the Sri Lankan government’s war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. He said papers did not need to send stories to the censors "unless in grave doubt. But if we find that they have broken the regulation we reserve the right to take action under the law." Malaysia’s Umno opts to stick with Mahathir NELSON GRAVES Kuala Lumpur, Reuters The leadership of Malaysia’s foremost political party has opted to stick with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, offering short-term political stability as it struggles to mend a rift in the dominant Malay community. Umno remains Malaysia’s main party after November elections with 72 seats in the 193-member lower house of parliament. The party leads Dr Mahathir’s 14-party Barisan Nasional coalition, which won three quarters of the seats. But Umno, with 94 seats in the outgoing assembly, lost ground to the Islamic conservative Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) in the Malay heartland states in the north and east of Peninsular Malaysia. PAS more than tripled its seats, won control of two states, Kelantan and Terengganu, and made inroads into several others.

TEACHER'S NOTE It’s usually easy to get a reaction from someone when their reputation comes under attack – even indirectly. Thus, the letter to Post Bag from John Smith in which he openly questions the quality of the students at one of Thailand’s most prestigious universities should be able to prompt a response from your students as well. After all, if education at Chula is substandard, the same might be said for your school. Begin by making sure the students understand Mr Smith’s letter. It is not difficult except at the beginning where he says "I did not ask the students their analysis of the fall of dependency theory …" Help your students see that all he is saying is that he did not ask the students any really difficult, specialised questions. After the students understand the letter, let them consider an appropriate response. This could be done in small groups. It is likely that some or all of these groups will have some difficulty in doing this. While they will probably disagree with Mr Smith’s conclusions, they may not be able to say why. Here you can help them by using one of the concepts in last week’s lesson: reliability. Does Mr Smith’s test really measure what it implies that it does? Almost certainly not. Students in many countries of the world would likely fail similar tests because at that age they don’t keep up on world news. But that doesn’t make them bad students. Next, let your students read about how some Thammasat students reacted to the letter. Notice that they, too, pointed out how Mr Smith’s test lacked reliability. The main activity on the page is designed to show your students that it is not difficult to keep up on the news. In fact, the news is everywhere and one of the best local sources is the Bangkok Post itself. Your students may not change their reading habits at this point of their lives, but an important part of their education is to learn where they can find information when they need it. This lesson fits very well into that aim. Next week: a lesson based on Acharn Terry's "secret" vocabulary lesson. Go back to the top