Thai school holidays
- Thread starter Nomad
- Start date
Hatari
Active member
No holiday, the Thai O-Net exams are on today
From last year:
12th year students fail four of five O-Net exams
21 March 2017
The results of nationwide O-Net tests for students in the 12th grade, or Mathayom 6, which came out Monday showed students failed four out of five subjects on average, according to the National Institute of Educational Testing Service (Niets).
O-Net stands for Ordinary National Educational Test.
It is conducted annually by Niets to measure students' basic knowledge in five key subjects – mathematics, English, Thai language, social studies and general sciences. All grade 6, 9 and 12 students must take the test to assess their academic proficiency. O-Net scores are used for university admission. The number of students taking the O-Net each year is about two million.
Overall, average scores in four subjects for the over 380,000 Mathayom 6 students tested nationwide this year were under 50%, with mathematics and English remaining the students' least favourite subjects with average scores of 24.8 and 27.7, respectively, Niets said.
High school seniors did best in Thai language with an average score of 52.29, while the results for social studies and general sciences were 35.89 and 31.62, respectively.
When comparing test score outcomes between schools under the Office of the Basic Education Commission's (Obec) supervision and university demonstration schools, or so-called Sathit in Thai, Niets found students in demonstration schools clearly did better than Obec students in every subject.
The averages scored by Sathit students were 66.1 in Thai language, 43.8 in social studies, 50.7 in English, 43.97 in mathematics and 40.5 in general sciences, while Obec students only got 53.09 in Thai language, 36.17 in social studies, 27.35 in English, 24.9 in mathematics and 31.7 in general sciences.
Moreover, Niets also compared the test results based on school location and found a wide gap in English and maths exam scores between urban and rural school students.
According to Niets' data, students studying in urban schools, on average, got higher scores than students in rural schools in all subjects.
Niets director Samphan Phanphruek said even though Mathayom 6 students' O-Net scores on average this year were still below 50 marks in most subjects, the results in two subjects, Thai and English, improved.
Last year, the average scores of Mathayom 6 students were 49.36 in Thai language, 39.7 in social studies, 24.78 in English, 26.59 in mathematics and 33.4 in general sciences.
Mr Samphan added Niets will allow students who feel that their scores were incorrect to send a request for their O-Net results to be re-checked this week.
Education critic Sompong Jitradup said the biggest concern arising from the exam results was the inequality and discrepancies in the Thai education system as this could be seen by the differences between the scores of urban and rural students as well as those of Sathit and Obec students.
From last year:
12th year students fail four of five O-Net exams
21 March 2017
The results of nationwide O-Net tests for students in the 12th grade, or Mathayom 6, which came out Monday showed students failed four out of five subjects on average, according to the National Institute of Educational Testing Service (Niets).
O-Net stands for Ordinary National Educational Test.
It is conducted annually by Niets to measure students' basic knowledge in five key subjects – mathematics, English, Thai language, social studies and general sciences. All grade 6, 9 and 12 students must take the test to assess their academic proficiency. O-Net scores are used for university admission. The number of students taking the O-Net each year is about two million.
Overall, average scores in four subjects for the over 380,000 Mathayom 6 students tested nationwide this year were under 50%, with mathematics and English remaining the students' least favourite subjects with average scores of 24.8 and 27.7, respectively, Niets said.
High school seniors did best in Thai language with an average score of 52.29, while the results for social studies and general sciences were 35.89 and 31.62, respectively.
When comparing test score outcomes between schools under the Office of the Basic Education Commission's (Obec) supervision and university demonstration schools, or so-called Sathit in Thai, Niets found students in demonstration schools clearly did better than Obec students in every subject.
The averages scored by Sathit students were 66.1 in Thai language, 43.8 in social studies, 50.7 in English, 43.97 in mathematics and 40.5 in general sciences, while Obec students only got 53.09 in Thai language, 36.17 in social studies, 27.35 in English, 24.9 in mathematics and 31.7 in general sciences.
Moreover, Niets also compared the test results based on school location and found a wide gap in English and maths exam scores between urban and rural school students.
According to Niets' data, students studying in urban schools, on average, got higher scores than students in rural schools in all subjects.
Niets director Samphan Phanphruek said even though Mathayom 6 students' O-Net scores on average this year were still below 50 marks in most subjects, the results in two subjects, Thai and English, improved.
Last year, the average scores of Mathayom 6 students were 49.36 in Thai language, 39.7 in social studies, 24.78 in English, 26.59 in mathematics and 33.4 in general sciences.
Mr Samphan added Niets will allow students who feel that their scores were incorrect to send a request for their O-Net results to be re-checked this week.
Education critic Sompong Jitradup said the biggest concern arising from the exam results was the inequality and discrepancies in the Thai education system as this could be seen by the differences between the scores of urban and rural students as well as those of Sathit and Obec students.
P
phaisan
Guest
Is that your daughters school?Hatari;358629 said:School's out
Ian Forbes
New member
I think the wide spread use of so called "smart phones" is one of the main culprits in recent poor grades. Somebody somewhere is going to need to incorporate learning with the phones to make it fun. Otherwise, kids are just going to fall further behind. Right now there is no incentive or interest. It will take some creative thinking on the part of educators.
Hatari
Active member
Childhood Bill set to outlaw exams for young children
April 02, 2018
Concern about psychological damage in early childhood linked to test pressure.
IF THE Early Childhood Bill sails through the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) this year, young children will be able to say goodbye to exams. “We hope it will be legislated in time for use in the 2019 academic year,” Assoc Professor Daranee Utairatanakit, a member of the Independent Committee for Education Reform (ICER), said in a recent interview with The Nation.
She said the Early Childhood Bill was drafted with the aim of laying down a firm foundation for children, which will be useful to lifelong learning. To prevent children from unnecessary stress and the loss of self-confidence, the bill is expected to bar schools from testing children during the enrolment process and also to ban exams for students from Prathom 1 to 3 levels. Primary schools that organise entrance exams will face a fine of up to Bt500,000 if the bill becomes law.
Many parents have enrolled their children in tutorial classes at a very young age in the hope of equipping them with various skills, academic knowledge and the opportunity to enter the country’s most prestigious schools. Some children have been forced to prepare for exams for entry to top primary schools at the age of just two-and-a-half. Many parents have also enrolled their children in 300-hour tutorial courses as they come close to sitting exams for renowned primary schools such as demonstration schools. These courses cost about Bt160,000 per head.
More
April 02, 2018
Concern about psychological damage in early childhood linked to test pressure.
IF THE Early Childhood Bill sails through the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) this year, young children will be able to say goodbye to exams. “We hope it will be legislated in time for use in the 2019 academic year,” Assoc Professor Daranee Utairatanakit, a member of the Independent Committee for Education Reform (ICER), said in a recent interview with The Nation.
She said the Early Childhood Bill was drafted with the aim of laying down a firm foundation for children, which will be useful to lifelong learning. To prevent children from unnecessary stress and the loss of self-confidence, the bill is expected to bar schools from testing children during the enrolment process and also to ban exams for students from Prathom 1 to 3 levels. Primary schools that organise entrance exams will face a fine of up to Bt500,000 if the bill becomes law.
Many parents have enrolled their children in tutorial classes at a very young age in the hope of equipping them with various skills, academic knowledge and the opportunity to enter the country’s most prestigious schools. Some children have been forced to prepare for exams for entry to top primary schools at the age of just two-and-a-half. Many parents have also enrolled their children in 300-hour tutorial courses as they come close to sitting exams for renowned primary schools such as demonstration schools. These courses cost about Bt160,000 per head.
More
Mr. Smiley
Active member
Jeez, certainly going to make it interesting to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to enrolling kindergarten students into grade one for the various Intensive Math and English programs without placement tests.
Attached files
Attached files
Chob
Moderator
Our grand daughter had to do a battery of tests to get in a well regarded private school , in the English Programhere at age 6.
I'd heard that nearly every kid they 'failed' , and then about 70% were offered positions , as long as , hello , they did a holiday tutorial course , that , surprise , wasnt cheap.
After 2 weeks I told the missus to pull her out - it was ridiculous to expect a kid to do TWO continuous years of school at that age.
I would simply teach her myself. ( I was once a teacher , so B.A. , Dip. Ed. )
She did nothing so I wrote to them myself.
There must have been some insurrection from other parents , as they wrote back saying the kids had been 'outstanding' and the course was to finish in 2 days. No refund on the remainder..
Thai schools are totally infatuated with exams..
Theres a place for testing ( if at least to see that the Teachers are doing their job ) , but theres too much of it in Thai schools..
I'd heard that nearly every kid they 'failed' , and then about 70% were offered positions , as long as , hello , they did a holiday tutorial course , that , surprise , wasnt cheap.
After 2 weeks I told the missus to pull her out - it was ridiculous to expect a kid to do TWO continuous years of school at that age.
I would simply teach her myself. ( I was once a teacher , so B.A. , Dip. Ed. )
She did nothing so I wrote to them myself.
There must have been some insurrection from other parents , as they wrote back saying the kids had been 'outstanding' and the course was to finish in 2 days. No refund on the remainder..
Thai schools are totally infatuated with exams..
Theres a place for testing ( if at least to see that the Teachers are doing their job ) , but theres too much of it in Thai schools..
Ian Forbes
New member
Learning should be FUN!! That way children want to learn more. I'm a fanatic about this. In all my years of schooling in Canada, only once did I ever have a teacher who inspired me. It wasn't until after I was kicked out of high school in my final year for punching out a teacher (he was a paedophile) that I finally clued in. I got sent to a private school with much smaller classes to complete my schooling and was able to qualify for university.
Mr. Smiley
Active member
Regarding too many exams at the lower level, what many fail to realize is it's an assessment to evaluate a student which for overstuffed classrooms is the easiest and quickest way to determine where a student is at. Considering the whole idea is to remove stress on the child they'd be better eliminating letter grades at the lower level than eliminating the test in order to give a letter grade.
justcruzing1
Active member
We have the same thing happening here, I think it is a Global situation and frankly I agree with older students from say 10-12yrs being tested to see what help they need and to see if the teacher is performing as well but to set tests for 4 or 5 yr olds is ridiculous.
As stated above because of the discriminatory testing to enter early learning and Primary School, parents are pushing their kids out of childhood.
Here we have parents selling up homes and moving just to get into the catchment area for their child to go to a certain kindergarten or primary school.
If kids at the young age are separated then they are going to grow up with stigmas and discrimination issues.
To get a good overall result and balanced generation you need to have them exposed to and friends with, all types. Those that are good academically may be poor in social skills, everyone can help someone else to improve in all facets of life.
What has happened here is schools were being given Gov. funds as a result/based on the OP score's of the students. So to protect their funding the schools have been culling the poorer students, instead of spending the time and resources to help them.
Last year there was a Doco on Punchbowl High in Sydney. It went from being one of the worst/lowest performing schools in the state and country to getting into the top OP's for 3?? years in a row. A new Principal that got in and worked with the kids and made education interesting and fun and the truancy stopped and also the ethnic fighting, the parents were included and it just went ahead in leaps and bounds.
They didn't get any special funding or cull the poor performers, just rolled up the sleeves and did the job they needed to do.
As stated above because of the discriminatory testing to enter early learning and Primary School, parents are pushing their kids out of childhood.
Here we have parents selling up homes and moving just to get into the catchment area for their child to go to a certain kindergarten or primary school.
If kids at the young age are separated then they are going to grow up with stigmas and discrimination issues.
To get a good overall result and balanced generation you need to have them exposed to and friends with, all types. Those that are good academically may be poor in social skills, everyone can help someone else to improve in all facets of life.
What has happened here is schools were being given Gov. funds as a result/based on the OP score's of the students. So to protect their funding the schools have been culling the poorer students, instead of spending the time and resources to help them.
Last year there was a Doco on Punchbowl High in Sydney. It went from being one of the worst/lowest performing schools in the state and country to getting into the top OP's for 3?? years in a row. A new Principal that got in and worked with the kids and made education interesting and fun and the truancy stopped and also the ethnic fighting, the parents were included and it just went ahead in leaps and bounds.
They didn't get any special funding or cull the poor performers, just rolled up the sleeves and did the job they needed to do.
justcruzing1
Active member
I knew you did Dean 
I am sure we talked about this Docco before and that's when you mentioned it.
I can't remember which station and when it was, sure it was earlier last year, I'll try and search/find it.
If I remember correctly there was also a TV series made around it...Drama like Home and Away style.
I am sure we talked about this Docco before and that's when you mentioned it.
I can't remember which station and when it was, sure it was earlier last year, I'll try and search/find it.
If I remember correctly there was also a TV series made around it...Drama like Home and Away style.
justcruzing1
Active member
WOW !!! it looks like it all went wrong, I just googled it and the principal was sacked in March 2017
Punchbowl Boys High School principal Robert Patruno threatened, Education Department says - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
The new principal has had death threats.
It was this fellow that made all the change for the better
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...ool-is-a-study-in-success-20140723-zw0nv.html
[FONT="]"It's just that – it drives you."
[/FONT]
[FONT="]But he turns serious when we discuss education policy, particularly the contentious subject of NAPLAN.
He describes how deflated his students were when they first saw the league tables, in newspapers like this one, ranking schools according to their test results.
"They said, 'Sir, are we really that bad? You told us we were a good school, and this is saying we're one of the worst schools' ... it was just this collapse.
"So I got up in assembly and gave a really impassioned speech ... I said all that's important is the effort you make. And that's all I care about."
Almost every boy at his school comes from a non-English-speaking background, many arrive with little English and two thirds come from the most disadvantaged socio-economic bracket. They start well behind.
[/FONT]
[FONT="]"You can't compare us to a selective school, it's just not fair," he says. "If [those schools] don't get top of the state there's something wrong."
Though the school's raw marks still tend to be well below the state average, in maths at least, students at Punchbowl are improving faster than others at similar schools – a better measure, in the view of many, of what a school is doing.
[/FONT]
Punchbowl Boys High School principal Robert Patruno threatened, Education Department says - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
The new principal has had death threats.
It was this fellow that made all the change for the better
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...ool-is-a-study-in-success-20140723-zw0nv.html
[FONT="]"It's just that – it drives you."
[/FONT]
[FONT="]But he turns serious when we discuss education policy, particularly the contentious subject of NAPLAN.
He describes how deflated his students were when they first saw the league tables, in newspapers like this one, ranking schools according to their test results.
"They said, 'Sir, are we really that bad? You told us we were a good school, and this is saying we're one of the worst schools' ... it was just this collapse.
"So I got up in assembly and gave a really impassioned speech ... I said all that's important is the effort you make. And that's all I care about."
Almost every boy at his school comes from a non-English-speaking background, many arrive with little English and two thirds come from the most disadvantaged socio-economic bracket. They start well behind.
[/FONT]
[FONT="]"You can't compare us to a selective school, it's just not fair," he says. "If [those schools] don't get top of the state there's something wrong."
Though the school's raw marks still tend to be well below the state average, in maths at least, students at Punchbowl are improving faster than others at similar schools – a better measure, in the view of many, of what a school is doing.
[/FONT]
Ian Forbes
New member
I remember watching a couple of true, documentary type US movies about "kick ass" teachers that got their below average students to rise up far above where they had been before. The teachers didn't take any shit from lazy students, but were still able to inspire them enough to want to learn and get better. I'm a sucker for a "feel good" story, and especially one based on the truth.justcruzing1;361517 said: