Thai education needs overhaul

14/04/2011 at 12:00 AM
Bangkok Post EDITORIAL

Thai students have over these past several years brought fame to the country and their educational institutions, by their outstanding performance in international competitions. Some of these extraordinary achievements included: Thai vocational students won the Harbin International Collegiate Snow Sculpture Contest championship in January this year and the year before; the King Mongkut's University of Technology (North Bangkok) won the championship prize of the World Robocup Rescue (rescue robot) contest held annually, for three years in a row since 2009; Thai students bagged altogether 27 medals, including 10 golds, in the International Mathematics and Science Olympiad for Primary Schools 2010 held in Bali, Indonesia; and a year earlier, 36 primary and junior high Thai students swept altogether 55 medals at the Asia Inter-Cities Mathematics Olympiad held in the Philippines. The list goes on.

These remarkable achievements in international contests may give an impression that the Thai educational system is quite excellent and the quality of education here is top grade. But that is just an illusion.

A closer look at all the Thai competitors reveals that most of them came from a few prestigious schools in Bangkok, namely the Sathit demonstration schools and they represent the cream of Thai students. Which must be the case for the other competitors from other countries - that is, only the top students are chosen to represent their countries.

What is rather disappointing and worrisome is that there is so much discrepancy between these minority top students and the majority who are at the bottom, with not so many rated in the middle. The recent results of the ordinary national educational tests for senior high school students, or O-net (Ordinary National Education Test), is an eye-opener regarding the Thai educational system and its quality of education, even though it is not used as the official barometer.

To several critics, including a well-known columnist at Thai Rath daily, the O-net result has been a real shock. About 350,000 senior high students across the country sat the tests in 8 basic subjects, including mathematics, science, Thai and English languages, arts and social science. Out of a score of 100 for each subject, the students scored an average of less than 50 in all the 8 subjects. For instance, the average score was 14.99 for math; 19.22 for English; 42.61 for Thai language and 30.90 for science.

One educator blamed the poor performance on the test papers; he said the papers were prepared by teachers from Sathit demonstration school and most of the questions were too difficult for the students to even understand. Others said many students did not care about the tests, which had no impact on their admission to universities.

Even if the tests were difficult, the below-par performance remains unacceptable. Something is terribly wrong somewhere - be it the educational system, the quality of teachers, or the students themselves, or all of them combined. Which needs to be fixed urgently and earnestly.

One thing that is undeniable and which poses a real problem for the quality of Thai education, is the quality of teachers at most state schools and institutions of higher learning. It was once suggested that the teachers themselves be made to sit the O-net tests to find out if they are even qualified to teach.The O-net results should serve as a wake-up call for the Education Ministry, which must realise the urgent need to overhaul the Thai educational system.