Noi’s school day starts at 6am sharp, when she arrives to set up the snack bar – adding to her already demanding 15-hour weekly teaching load. “I need to be there early,” she explains, “because I have to prepare the place and accept deliveries of food and snacks before it opens.”
Noi spends about two hours a day at the snack bar, also returning during the lunch break to serve students. Her story reflects a wider reality in the Thai education system, where the list of teachers’ duties runs very long. For Noi, it covers more than 400 tasks. Other teachers at her school have also taken on special assignments – including registration, supplies, administrative tasks and more.
A survey by the Equitable Education Fund (EEF) revealed that the average teacher spends 84 days per year away from their classroom handling other tasks.
Typically, more than half of these…
