Testing time for students a pain in the class

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Testing time for students a pain in the class

Published: 2/02/2012 at 10:14 AM
Newspaper section: News

Results in national tests required for university admission have revealed poor average scores in most core subjects.

The National Institute of Educational Testing Service on Tuesday announced the results for the General Aptitude Test (GAT) and Professional Aptitude Test (PAT) held last year.

The GAT tests high-school students vying for seats in universities in general subjects such as Thai language, maths and social science. The PAT tests students in specialised subjects.

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debate101
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Discussion 36 : 03/02/2012 at 08:25 AM36
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Every year, students score "poorly" on their entrance exams and every year, this same article comes out in the Bangkok Post. However, they still haven't found someone who knows something about testing to write it. For example, a raw score on a national standardized exam has essentially no meaning. If the Bangkok Post wants to make the claim that Thai students are scoring poorly, we need to know in regards to what. If students from other countries took these same exams and were scoring much higher, then there would be some evidence to make this claim.
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abbub
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Discussion 35 : 02/02/2012 at 06:29 PM35
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MED D26: People that find work, work within the framework of what is possible. I often meet people that, in order to get a job, if they have not gotten unearned diplomas for school they just buy them. Every plays the game.

DAO: you never miss an opportunity to blame TS. BTW 8 years is nothing and ignoring the previous 8 decades of modern-day Thailand is no excuse.

Having said that, a few years ago after the 2006 coup the military launched a campaign throughout the country to GET PEOPLE TO STOP SPEAKIN ENGLISH so much! Many will remember their campaign on radio against Thai people answering their telephones with "hello". They wanted people to answer in Thai; "sawadee krup".

I may be off the marl but I believe the less English people speak, the less information they will receive from the outside world. Could be a connection.

BARRY yes I agree sometimes the grammar and spelling is horrible. My own excuse is the auto-spell check I have still not come to terms with.
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heartie
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Discussion 34 : 02/02/2012 at 04:57 PM34
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Would 50+ students to a classroom having anything to do with the dismal scores? How about the 'every student must pass' policy? And what about the majority of parents who were poorly educated themselves? Teachers also complain about majority of parents who don't encourage their children to study at home because they don't seem to value it enough or see the need because they feel that it's the schools' responsiblity (to teach) and that's it. Home is not to study, but to play games, eat, sleep or whatever?!
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johninbkk
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Discussion 33 : 02/02/2012 at 04:53 PM33
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dao D28 - "Teachers dont just change the way they think by themselves .They need to be retrained .Why didnt Thaksin to that ? He had 8 years."
De-centralization of education was a requirement in the 1997 Constitution. But when TS began implementing the required changes (which I thought were good), the teachers began to protest in mass and joined the PAD back in 2005. The poo-yai teachers didn't want to lose their poo-yai status. TS backed down and a compromise was made.

bkk-farang D27 - I'd honestly like to know where all that money goes, too. I checked the Min. of Education website, but their budget info is 3 years old and lacks any details.
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johninbkk
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Discussion 32 : 02/02/2012 at 04:32 PM32
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25% of the Thai budget is spent towards education, so it's not money that is the problem . . .

"Teachers must radically change their way of thinking — I'm not sure they can do this." - TS, Aug 18, 2002
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drsmith
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Discussion 31 : 02/02/2012 at 04:10 PM31
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Recently 200 University students could not find Australia, India, the UK, South Africa and Brazil on a world map. English pre-test 2 out of 200 scored 70. Another 10 in the 50 to 60 range. 188 scored below 30. When you are a University student and have no idea of the difference between a noun and verb, something is wrong with the education system. If the students do not learn, no one is accountable. Find someone/something else to blame it on
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barryw
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Discussion 30 : 02/02/2012 at 04:05 PM30
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It is interesting to read through these comments about poor education and poor understanding of English, yet many of the contributions also contain poor grammer and spelling errors.
Sign of the times, I suppose. Dumber and dumber. It even applies to the BBC these days. Almost daily, there are errors contained in the news ticker along the bottom of the screen on BBC World.
(spoken as a grumpy old fart)
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khunbj
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Discussion 29 : 02/02/2012 at 04:03 PM29
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D22 : hillfarang ... well even if you flash your PhD then it does not make me agree with you or the MANY others in this case ... so this is what is called a difference of opinion ...allowed ? I think so .
That the Thai educational systems isn't exactly the best in the world is another story, but that will have to be sorted out by the Thai people and I bet they won't pay any attention to this forum in doing so, and that is good too.
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dao
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Discussion 28 : 02/02/2012 at 03:00 PM28
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Johninbkk
Teachers dont just change the way they think by themselves .They need to be retrained .Why didnt Thaksin to that ? He had 8 years .
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bkk-farang
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Discussion 27 : 02/02/2012 at 01:03 PM27
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@johninbkk #23: you write “25% of the Thai budget is spent towards education” Where does that number come from? 25% of which “Thai budget”?
If I read this correct and 25% of the national budget of Thailand is currently spent on education then I would really like to know the details of that because obviously the education is very bad. But maybe 24.9% is for the education of politicians children and the rest is for the rest of the country? Please give us more details about this 25%!
P.S.: "Politicians must radically change their way of thinking — I'm not sure they can do this." – BKK-Farang, Feb 2, 2012
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