Debacle has students yearning for previous admission system
Student representatives stand outside caretaker Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang’s office last week as they appeal for the ministry to solve the problems with the scoring of the O-Net and A-Net exams so they can proceed with their applications for adm
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The O-Net and A-Net exam fiasco has revived the heated controversy over whether the central university-entrance system should have been replaced by the admission system that debuted this year.
Irate students are demanding the new system, which has been plagued by errors, be scrapped, but the Education Ministry has so far ignored them while some educators insist returning to the old system is useless. Despite the fiasco of error-riddled results, they maintain that the new system will slow the rush to cram schools and increase opportunities for students from rural schools to enter universities. Students, however, base their main objections on the administration of the new system rather than the ideas behind it. "The [new] admission system won't be as good as they think it is as long as the overall processes are so poorly prepared," said Sasiwan Phongchawee, from Kasetsart University Demonstration Elementary School's Kam Peang Sean campus. The 18-year-old said the main problem with the new system was that it lacks a mechanism for standardising the varying grading standards. The previous system gave a 10-per-cent weighting to high school grade-point averages, while scores from the central university entrance exam - considered by many to be quite gruelling - accounted for the remaining 90 per cent. The system introduced this year gives at least a 30 per cent weighting to high school grade-point averages (GPAs) and the rest of the score is derived from the Ordinary National Educational Test (O-Net) and Advanced National Educational Test (A-Net), which are formulated by secondary school teachers and considered easier than the central entrance exam. "Each [secondary] school has different standards for grading their students," Sasiwan noted. "While I faced a tough Physics exam in my school, a friend at a little-known rural school told me that she was required only to sing the school song to get marks in an exam for the same subject! Where is the standard?" she asked. Sasiwan also claimed that the controversy over the A-Net and O-Net exams was not limited to the haphazard scoring process but had seeped into the exam rooms as well. Some teachers overseeing the tests provided students from their schools with answers, she said. "Many students are disappointed with the new system and are opting for the direct admission process held by individual universities," she said. Students can skip the central admission system and apply directly to their chosen university, which requires them to undergo its testing process. Spaces available through this route are limited, however. Saranya Jamroonsiri, from Loei's Ta Lee Wittaya School said the criteria and process of the new admission system remained unclear among students and teachers in rural areas. The 18-year-old said it would be better to halt the new system until students and test administers understood the system. Saranya said teachers at her school were confused about the new university admission tests and had given students incorrect information about them. She also opposed the process of announcing results only on the Internet, saying students in remote areas had no access to the Internet. Amornwit Nakhornthap, an academic at Chulalongkorn University, said there was nothing inherently wrong with the new testing system. Problems with the system derived from the National Institute of Education Testing Service, which was unprepared to process the tests as it was newly formed, Amornwit said. There was no need to suspend the new system or return to the old one, he said. The technical errors can be solved, but the most immediate step to be taken should be to gain the trust of students and parents, Amornwit said. The new system's main advantage is that students no longer need to attend cram schools because the admission criteria has more variety by blending GPA with O-Net and A-Net scores. Students academic futures no longer depend on an unnecessarily tough entrance exam, he added. Pavich Thongroj, secretary-general of the Higher Education Commission said that by placing more importance on GPA students' attention would return to their classes instead of being focused on cram schools. "We have to give a chance to rural students who can't afford cram schools," Pavich added.
Chatrarat Kaewmorakot The Nation
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