Thailand scores badly in education assessment ranking

Thailand scores badly in education assessment ranking

Thailand's education system is ranked 37th out of 40 countries assessed in latest global index ranking published by British education and publishing group Pearson Plc.

Finland took first place with a score of 1.26 points, followed by South Korea and Hong-Kong. Following them are two other Asian countries: Japan and Singapore.

Thailand scored badly, with 1.46, and had only three countries below it in the ranking.

About 10,000 students attend a tutorial at a shopping mall in Bangkok in preparation for entrance exams to study medicine at an university. (Photo by Apichit Jinakul)

The index ranking is based on cognitive skills – test scores in reading, writing, and mathematics – and educational attainment – literacy and graduation rate – accumulated from 40 developed countries.

Sir Michael Barber, Pearson's chief education adviser, said successful countries gave their educators a high status and have a culture that is supportive of education.

Thai netizens posted messages on various webboards on Wednesday, mostly criticising the Thai education system.

"It's because of the educators," said a postor in posttoday.com.

"I feel that education does not account to how successful you are in the real world," said a comment in pantip.com. "These highly educated people have the knowledge but can't perform."

Another netizen suggested that Thailand should improve the social belief in education, spend more money to improve the quality of teachers and school autonomy to climb up the ranking.

"The quality of some private universities is really worrying. The quality of graduates with a bachelor's degree here is lower than high school graduates in other countries," one netizen said. "If you pay all the tuition fees here, you'll definitely graduate."

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