Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

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buksida
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Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

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The 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) shows sharp falls in maths, sciences and reading scores for students in Thailand.

Thai students are underperforming their peers in several Asian countries as their scores were below the international average in all three subjects.

Pisa, which is funded by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), surveyed the knowledge and skills in mathematics, sciences and reading of more than half a million 15-year-olds across 70 countries worldwide. The evaluation takes place every three years. Thailand has participated in the evaluation since 2000.

According to the survey released on Tuesday, Thailand ranked 54th for maths, 57th for reading, and 54th for sciences.

Thai children scored 415 points in maths, far lower than the international average of 490 points. In sciences, Thai students scored 421 points, much worse than the international average of 493. And in reading, Thais scored 409 points, well below the OECD average of 493 points.

Acting Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin said Thailand's performance in reading and sciences has dropped sharply from 2012 when students scored 444 points in sciences and 441 in reading.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... t-rankings
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Re: Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

Post by StevePIraq »

Is this a surprise? Thai schooling/education is at best atrocious. I have had two kids at university here and their education is appalling, their knowledge of most things is pitiful with the exception of certain aspects of Thai life and history.

I am not talking about International schools or the top (real) universities in Bangkok.
Last edited by StevePIraq on Thu Dec 08, 2016 12:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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buksida
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Re: Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

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Right, I also have two at school here and when you look at how the curriculum is broken down very little of it is dedicated to maths and science.
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Re: Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

Post by Spitfire »

One of the reasons is that the Thais are too nationalistic and arrogant.

Have a read of this and it will put things into some sort of perspective.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... -the-world
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Re: Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

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on the other hand, I have 2 daughters at 2 different universities in Bangkok. one is finishing her masters in piano accompaniment and music ed., the other is in her last semester doing Korean studies. both are fluent in English. the youngest also speaks Chinese in addition to Korean and English. it helps to have ambition, drive, a love of learning and a desire to succeed. laziness is not an option. I can't take any credit other than encouragement and telling them to do what they loved. the youngest said that most of the students in her first 2 yrs., especially the wealthy, were there to party so the competition was between her and the exams. they both immersed themselves in their subjects in and out of school. the faculty is not the entire blame for poor students.
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Re: Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

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Music and art are creative, which Thais tend to be generally good at. Maths and science on the other hand is terrible here because so little of it is taught at schools in favour of more nationalistic subjects.
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Re: Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

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Here is the economist article - an interesting slant.
IMO while Thailand holds onto its ancient script it will always be behind the educational eightball. Vietnam woke up a long time ago and China is a standout.
http://www.economist.com/news/asia/2171 ... -thailands
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Re: Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

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Thailand: the land of everything backwards.
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Re: Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

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All I can say is I am very very happy I do not have a child of my own in Thailand who has to be educated here.
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Re: Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

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Re: Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

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charlesh wrote:Here is the economist article - an interesting slant.
IMO while Thailand holds onto its ancient script it will always be behind the educational eightball. Vietnam woke up a long time ago and China is a standout.
http://www.economist.com/news/asia/2171 ... -thailands
I guess that leaves Russia, Greece, and all the other countries who still use their "ancient script" behind the "8 ball."
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Re: Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

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The vietnamese system was invented by a Catholic Monastic order during the colonisation. Unfortunately Thai was never colonised. i frequently apologise to them for this ommission.
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Re: Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

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It would seem that the system cannot even teach the kids their own language, so English has very little chance at all!
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Grade 6 students fail in Thai essay writing

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... ay-writing

Slang, local dialects found in examinations

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.
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Re: Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

Post by Bamboo Grove »

Thailand has a serious problem with it's educational system but this trend of poor writing skills is IMHO world wide and as the article states a lot of the this is caused by the "internet language".
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Re: Thailand tumbles in International Student Assessments

Post by StevePIraq »

Thailand has a problem with it's government system not just educational system
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