Students should not be discouraged from looking at something else besides textbooks. Even golf magazines, Chinese martial-arts novels and women's journals have their merit, he said. Teachers should let students explain their selection of reading material and report what it is about, so as to improve their skill in catching the gist of the contents.

Reading comprehension was said to be lacking among university students due to limited practice at lower educational levels.

Chaturon was addressing teachers and students from 2,000 schools at the Education Ministry's seminar on education reform in Pattaya.

He said schooling should infuse students with a love of reading for life-long learning, sharpen their critical and analytical thinking instead of focusing on rote learning, and instil morals and a sense of responsibility in them as full members of society.

The Thai curriculum needs to be updated to keep up with the changing world, which constantly spews out new knowledge. Educational agencies, before they change anything, should thoroughly study the possibilities and consequences and inform other parties. Tthe evaluation of the ministry's work regarding O-Net and A-Net (Ordinary and Advanced National Educational Tests) exams will be wrapped up tomorrow, Chaturon said.

The ministry's operations team was handling students' complaints on a case-by-case basis, because another across-the-board review would interfere with the students and their applications to their universities of choice, he said.

The ministry plans to add more open-ended questions to the O- and A-Net exams, not reduce or do away with them, he said. Many countries have changed their exams from multiple choice to short-answer questions because the multiple-choice format can limit a full analysis of students' knowledge, he said.