A testing time for students

The university entrance exams are driving some people NUTS

Published: 7/03/2010 at 09:38 AM
Newspaper section: Brunch

Many years ago I ran an English public speaking contest for Thai high schoolers. Students wishing to compete had to send in cassette tapes of their three-minute speeches to the magazine where I was editor, so we could choose the best 10 for competition day. Dozens and dozens of tapes came rolling in, and so one Monday we set aside the entire day to listen to them.

It was an experience on a par with having wisdom teeth pulled. Two of us sat through speech upon speech on topics such as "Exciting Nakhon Sawan", "The Traditional Thai Greeting Known As The Wai", "The Beauty Of Thai Dancing", and "Save Our Environment". Soon I was excusing myself to go to the kitchen in the hope of finding something steely and sharp to put an end to it all.

It was just before midday when I slipped yet another cassette into the player and pressed play.

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: Writer: Andrew Biggs; Position: Writer

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Nay W

Discussion 2 : 08/03/2010 at 06:18 PM2
I was quite outraged when I heard about the latest disaster with these tests as well. Not only are a lot of these "aptitude/IQ" tests very subjective--well..that's it, they're totally subjective. I cannot begin to fathom how the people who created these tests could call pass middle school, let alone call themselves a member of the academia.

Something must be done with these tests before it actively ruin our beautiful country.
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thomas hoy

Discussion 1 : 08/03/2010 at 05:22 PM1
Andrew,

I wrote an academic paper on multiple choice test questions in English exams at Ramkhamhaeng University a few years ago (â€œMultiple Minimal Choices: Ideology and Language Testingâ€. Asian Jounal of University Education. Vol 2. No. 1. June 2007. pp. 23-37.")

The questions did not test English ability. They tested whether the student had the "correct" attitude to things. As this test also does. In the Ramkhamhaeng tests, students had to believe that hard work always leads to success, that the world can easily be divided into good guys and bad guys, they had to believe numerous notions about the fairness, justice and beauty of Thai society, and probably most pervasively and most destructively of any talent in English that they might have, they had to believe that a cliche is always to be preferred to an original thought.

So it is reassuring to read that the custodians of morality at NIETS who put this test are putting their talents to proper use and planning a "national morality test".

"NIETS also wants to create national morality tests and already has forms for such tests. Academic tests are not enough. However, to test what is in people's minds is very hard. We need to do research to guarantee the accuracy of the tests," he [the director of NIETS] said.(http://nationmultimedia.com/2010/02/01/national/national_30121518.php)

I suppose we should be thankful that they are upfront about what they are testing and not pretending that it will be about competence or knowledge but only whether students subscribe to their peculiar notions of morality.

Thomas Hoy, Department of English, Thammasat University.
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A testing time for students | Bangkok Post: lifestyle