Grade 6 students sitting the recent Ordinary National Educational Test (O-Net) were found to have fared poorly in the essay portion that tests their Thai language skills, according to the National Institute of Education Testing Service (NIETS).
NIETS director Sampan Panpruk said NIETS found that many Grade 6 students failed to write proper and formal Thai in their recent essay test, in a portion introduced for the first time in this year's O-Net exam.
Misspelling, use of slang, informal language and regional dialects were common mistakes found among students, Mr Sampan said.
"We've seen many Thai misspellings. For example, instead of writing Tor Tha Harn and Ro Ruea in the Thai word Sak [cutting in front], they wrote Sor So in the Thai word Sak which is wrong," he said. "Some students even used Thai slang such as Sab Wer [superb] and Chew Chew [easy] in their essays," the NIETS director said.
Mr Sampan said his examiners also found a number of students used words from their regional dialects in the test.
"Regional dialects are not bad Thai. Each dialect's value is equal to standard Thai, but when it comes to academic writing, it's important for students to be able to use standard Thai language," he said.
Mr Sampan said this academic year is the first year that the O-Net test includes a written portion in Thai which will contribute 20% of the total mark.
He explained that a writing section will allow the exam to better evaluate a student's analytical capacity and address issues of Thai illiteracy.
He said NIETS will report these problems to the Education Ministry and the Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec), so they can solve the problems in the exams in the coming years.
Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin said it is understandable that some grammatical errors were found in the subjective essay test because most Thai students had never sat a written exam before and Thai children these days have been influenced a lot by informal Thai language used online.
"If we look on the bright side, the exam reflects where the problems are. Therefore, we now know where to fix them," Dr Teerakiat said.
According to Obec's survey on the literacy rates of students in primary levels (Prathom 1-6) undertaken last year, those of Thai primary students increased by at least 1-2% in all levels.
In Prathom 1 level, the number of Thai primary students who are able to read and write, compared to the previous year, increased from 88.4% to 94.3%. At Prathom 2 level, it rose from 91.7% to 94.9% and the number improved from 94.9% to 97.1% at Prathom 3 level.
For the Prathom 4-6 levels, the literacy rate also increased from 95.5% to 97.4%, 96.4% to 98% and 97.3% to 98.5% respectively.
The O-Net test is conducted annually by NIETS to measure students' basic knowledge in five key subjects -- English, Thai, mathematics, social studies and general sciences.