"It will help the institution establish itself as a leading science school in the world," the Office of National Education Standards and Quality Assessment's director, Dr Somwang Pitiyanuwat, said yesterday.

He said Mahidol Wittayanusorn, Thailand's first specialised science school, had scored highly in all aspects in a general quality assessment conducted by his office.

On Tuesday, Somwang said that more than half of 30,010 educational institutions assessed in his office's first round of quality checks were "in a coma" and in need of urgent improvements.

He endorsed Mahidol Witta-yanusorn's request for a world-class assessment, adding that the school had ranked among the best in his office's quality check. He said it would take a year to develop new assessment criteria for Mahidol Wittayanuson, but they would be based on standards at the world's leading science schools.

Somwang said such schools stressed the quality of their teachers, hiring only those with master's degrees or doctorates in science. Currently, there are 13 science schools in Thailand.

Dr Amaret Bhumiratana, dean of Mahidol University's Faculty of Science, yesterday expressed concern that Mahidol Wittayanusorn School was now drifting from its initial objective of grooming students to become pure scientists.

"Now, it seems most students from the school go into engineering and medicine," Amaret said. He believed this was a result of the school focusing more on students' academic performance than on training them to become scientists.

In a related development, Education Ministry Permanent Secretary Kasama Varavarn said that although more than half the schools had failed to meet the assessment office's criteria, they had things to be proud of.

"For example, their students demonstrated high ethical standards," she said. She said a shortage of teachers was the reason so many schools had done so badly.

Kasama also said that only 560 schools - not more than 15,000, as reported by Somwang - were in a critical condition. She vowed to improve these schools when she took over as secretary-general of the Office of the Basic Education Commission on October 1.

"These schools can be improved. We can work on their curricula, recruit more teachers and buy more teaching equipment," she said.

Caretaker Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang said it should be made clear the findings were based on pre-2006 assessments.

Chaturon made it a policy this year to overhaul methods of teaching. "I'm afraid people may think things have worsened since the launch of the policy," he said.