Upset parents and students gather at the NIETS office to demand an explanation after error-riddled test scores were released two weeks ago.

If the deadlock is not broken, this problem will continue and the students will be the main losers.

Years ago, the entrance exams were in the hands of the HEC. Lecturers designed the questions, which were formulated around the knowledge that they expected a student to have before starting a degree.

Some of these topics were not taught in schools. To improve their chances, many pupils signed up for tutorials, which consumed their evenings and weekends. Their quality of life suffered and pupils became de-motivated in school, as their grade point average (GPA) had nothing to do with the exam results.

The Education Ministry, which is in charge of Thai schools, wanted to change all that. Two years ago it urged the HEC, which replaced the University Affairs Ministry after it was dissolved, to incorporate the GPA of each subject and the cumulative grade from the three years in high school, the so-called GPAX, into the selection system.

That incorporation existed when the admission system was introduced this year, despite lingering questions on the weight of the GPA and GPAX in the enrolment system and the scoring standards each school employed.

One school could be lenient and another strict in giving out grades and the student from the generous school had a better chance of getting a university place. If this issue is not cleared up, the admissions system will only make matters worse, as the weight of GPA and GPAX in the admission system is due to rise gradually, from 30 per cent this year to an eventual 100 per cent.

Making things more complicated is the O-Net (Ordinary National Educational Test) and A-Net (Advanced National Education Test), undertaken by the Education Ministry. From this year the tests, which have been used only to gauge the teaching and scoring standards of schools, carry the weight in the admission system.

This year the O-Net and A-Net scores account for 70 per cent of the admissions grade but this will fall to nothing when the weight of GPA and GPAX is increased to 100 per cent.

Uncertainty about the quality of school scoring systems as well as the A-Net and O-Net tests, which are entirely under Education Ministry control, has led several universities to embark on their own enrolment procedures. Lecturers prepare the tests for their departments and only the students who pass the exams are accepted. Some universities admit half of their students through the state system and half through their own tests.

The trouble has occurred amid strong insistence from the Education Ministry on the effectiveness and credibility of the A-Net and O-Net tests and the academic outcry about apparent discrepancies between schools. These discrepancies could result in low-quality students who may become weak graduates.

While academics battle it out with the state, students deserve our pity. Unlike the old days, they cannot all still bank on the university entrance examination results. Now, each must chart their university entrance plan carefully. To enrol for medicine at Chulalongkorn University, an applicant must pass the university's test. For a place in Thammasat University, they can either pass the admission system or apply directly to the university, which is picking half its students from each of the two testing systems.

As the admission system and the direct admission tests of universities occur at different times, students can take all the tests. The result is they have to prepare themselves for all kinds of questions, taught in classrooms or not, that could emerge during their numerous tests.

They must ensure that their GPA and GPAX are good and that requires constant concentration in school. After school, they need to enrol in special tutorials for extra knowledge. And some will need even more tuition on the questions that their university of choice might ask if they apply through the direct admissions system.

This Saturday, April 29, there will be a discussion at the University Resident Council of Thailand, where rectors will discuss if the weight of GPA, GPAX and the results of A-Net and O-NET should be maintained at 30 per cent of the scores under the admission system.

This meeting should come to a final decision. If they are displeased with the current weighting and the plans to increase it over the years, they can voice their dissatisfaction.

If the ratio is to be reduced, they should also come up with recommendations on how to balance their requirement for high-quality students and the Education Ministry's need for greater concentration in the classroom.

There should be a single admission system to end confusion. Still, specialist academic departments could quiz applicants to ascertain their aptitude for a subject.

Only compromise from both agencies will ensure harmonious educational reform to benefit the whole nation.

Chularat Saengpassa

The Nation