Abstract:
Studies the state and the problems of the English curriculum development relevant to local needs in elementary schools under the Office of Bangkok Primary Education. The samples of the study were school administrators, assistant administrators, heads of the English department and prathom suksa 1-6 English teachers. The research was conducted on the populations which were the Director of the Office of Bangkok Primary Education and the Supervisors. The research instruments employed were structured interview forms and document analysis forms. Data were analyzed by using content analysis, frequency and percentage. The results were : The teachers were able to develop the English curriculum by adapting the activities, contents of the subjects, teaching aids and by developing new teaching aids relevant to local needs. In adapting the activities to local needs, the teachers studied the objectives contents, activities, periods of learning and wrote lesson plans. The activities used included games, songs, and role-playing. Mostly, the teachers used the communicative approach in the classroom. The teachers evaluated the students by testing. The problems of teachers were that they had too many work loads and lacked the knowledge of local curriculum development. Also, the budget provided did not enough. In order to solve the problems, the teachers should be were given in-service training, be about supported the budget and be reduced the work loads. Schools supported teachers by sending them to attend the seminars and training ; by providing in instructional materials, teaching aids and a sound lab. Most schools supervised teachers by providing them the texts; and did not evaluate the curriculum implementation. The problems encountered were the insufficiency of school staff, lack of knowledge in curriculum development. In order to solve the problems, the schools should provide the teachers' training about developing the curriculum and support the budgets. The support was provide by the Office of Bangkok Primary Education by collecting data for planning staff development, organizing the seminars, providing budgets for schools to invite the resource persons and for curriculum materials, coordinating the agencies on organizing the seminars, supervising schools, constructing the supervisory tools, and evaluating the curriculum implementations. The problems encountered were that the seminars could only provide services for only a few of the teachers, the budget was not sufficient. The teacher training institutions should improve teacher education. More budget should be allocated to schools.