Thailand scores badly in education assessment ranking

[PeteC]

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/3 ... on-ranking

Thailand scores badly in education assessment ranking

Published: 28/11/2012 at 05:09 PM
Online news: Local News

Thailand's education system is ranked 37th out of 40 countries assessed in latest global index ranking published by British education and publishing group Pearson Plc.

Finland took first place with a score of 1.26 points, followed by South Korea and Hong-Kong. Following them are two other Asian countries: Japan and Singapore.

Thailand scored badly, with 1.46, and had only three countries below it in the ranking.

The index ranking is based on cognitive skills – test scores in reading, writing, and mathematics – and educational attainment – literacy and graduation rate – accumulated from 40 developed countries.

Sir Michael Barber, Pearson's chief education adviser, said successful countries gave their educators a high status and have a culture that is supportive of education.

Thai netizens posted messages on various webboards on Wednesday, mostly criticising the Thai education system.

"It's because of the educators," said a postor in posttoday.com.

"I feel that education does not account to how successful you are in the real world," said a comment in pantip.com. "These highly educated people have the knowledge but can't perform."

Another netizen suggested that Thailand should improve the social belief in education, spend more money to improve the quality of teachers and school autonomy to climb up the ranking.

"The quality of some private universities is really worrying. The quality of graduates with a bachelor's degree here is lower than high school graduates in other countries," one netizen said. "If you pay all the tuition fees here, you'll definitely graduate."

[Terry]

Not really surprised Pete - it's a sad state of affairs

After my two lads suffered Somtawin and then Yamsa-ard, I'm really glad I managed to get them into homeschool at Halio.

They are really doing well and getting a challenging and useful education

[charlesh]

Yeah and Finland - the home of Nokia claim No 1 ha, ha. The poms who conducted this "survey" must have done it on April 1.