English camp, h1n1, and a breakdown in the lines of communication

There are only 11 students present in my Prathom 6 EP class today. EP stands for English Program, today is Monday, and there are normally 22 students in my class. Now, before we delve any further into why only 50 percent of the class is at school lets talk a bit about what EP is.

EP denotes certain things in Thailand. The first is the presence of native English speakers such as myself that teach about 60 percent of the curriculum in English. Some others are government funding, smaller classes, air-conditioning, resources such as paper and computers, and most importantly, the families of EP students almost always have money.

To give you an idea of what this means, a normal classroom in Thailand may have as many as 50 students jammed into 15 year old blackened desks stuffed into a normal sized classroom. Add 3 feeble fans panting out heavy tropical air and a bored Thai teacher talking through a microphone and you have a recipe for the Thai education system.

Ok, back to the cause behind the diminished population in my classroom, or as I like to call it, h1n1 strikes back. After an overnight English immersion camp which took place last week, several students that shared the same room took ill. Two days later at least one boy in the fifth grade had a verified case of the swine flu. That afternoon, for the first time in at least one month, the cleaners used a chemical disinfectant on the floors. My co-teacher brought out a bottle of hand cleanser and squirted a little glob into every waiting hand. The air-conditioner went off and the windows were open. The entire 5th grade class was sent home and told not to return for 10 days.

The next day I came into school to an empty classroom. The director of the school had sent my class home, but no one thought to inform me, nor did I know how long they were meant to stay home. I learned from colleagues that both the Thai and foreign teachers in the fifth grade had taken ill in the night. Without much to do, I spent the day screwing around on the internet and as a token effort, graded some exams. It was Friday, so I wasn’t fussed about losing the day.

At lunch today, the senior Thai teacher for p-6 confided that 4 more students had confirmed cases of the virus. Lemon face turned up for her 1 o’clock class and abruptly left, leaving the students unattended. No one turned up to teach at 2pm either. I haven’t a clue why teachers are running out of my classroom, and my crystal ball isn’t revealing any secrets no matter how many times I wave my hands around it. This is what communication is like in a Thai school, this is par for the course.