Childhood Bill set to outlaw exams for young children

[webfact]

Childhood Bill set to outlaw exams for young children

By CHULARAT SAENGPASSA 
THE NATION

 

 

Concern about psychological damage in early childhood linked to test pressure.
 

IF THE Early Childhood Bill sails through the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) this year, young children will be able to say goodbye to exams. 

 

“We hope it will be legislated in time for use in the 2019 academic year,” Assoc Professor Daranee Utairatanakit, a member of the Independent Committee for Education Reform (ICER), said in a recent interview with The Nation.

 

Assoc Professor Daranee Utairatanakit

 

The National Education Reform Commission is set to consider the draft law tomorrow, after which it will be forwarded to the education minister, the Cabinet and then the NLA. Before it goes to the Cabinet, opinions from stakeholders including parents will be gathered. 

 

The bill defines children of early-childhood stage as foetuses through to children aged eight years old – making a big change to the now-used definition of children aged between three and six. 

 

“Human brains have developed the most during our newly-defined early childhood,” Daranee said. “Before the age of eight, children have not yet stepped fully into the world of reality.” 

 

She said the Early Childhood Bill was drafted with the aim of laying down a firm foundation for children, which will be useful to lifelong learning. 

 

To prevent children from unnecessary stress and the loss of self-confidence, the bill is expected to bar schools from testing children during the enrolment process and also to ban exams for students from Prathom 1 to 3 levels. Primary schools that organise entrance exams will face a fine of up to Bt500,000 if the bill becomes law.

 

Many parents have enrolled their children in tutorial classes at a very young age in the hope of equipping them with various skills, academic knowledge and the opportunity to enter the country’s most prestigious schools.

 

Some children have been forced to prepare for exams for entry to top primary schools at the age of just two-and-a-half. 

 

Many parents have also enrolled their children in 300-hour tutorial courses as they come close to sitting exams for renowned primary schools such as demonstration schools. These courses cost about Bt160,000 per head.

 

Daranee said such practices could do more harm than good. 

 

“At such a young age, children should be allowed to learn with fun and develop naturally based on their potential,” she said. She said the focus on children’s ability to read or write as well as to understand academic knowledge could take place at a later stage. 

 

According to Daranee, the bill seeks to ban exams during the early-childhood stage so as to protect children. 

 

“Those exams are prone to imposing way too much pressure on children. So many Prathom 1 students are in fact not yet ready to sit in classes, even though they have good intellectual intelligence. They are unhappy in classrooms, affecting their abilities to learn and hurting their self-confidence,” Daranee explained. 

 

She said many children became disappointed when they could not successfully pass exams to famous primary schools, because of their parents’ expectations. 

 

Daranee said many of these disappointed children had better potential than those who learned to study well at a young age. 

 

“I must emphasise that when children are happy, they will be capable. When parents don’t try to dictate to them in all aspects of their life, children will naturally learn to solve problems on their own,” she said. 

 

Although the Early Childhood Bill will not force a ban on tutorial schools for children aged under eight, it should still be able to end the practice, she said.

 

“When there are no competitive exams for kids, no one will want to put their children in tutorial classes,” she said. 

 

Last year, a five-year-old pupil developed clear bruises after a teacher at a tutorial school hit him for failing to live up to the school’s expectations. The school is known for having produced several successful applicants to a top demonstration school. 

 

“This reflects the pressure that these types of courses have imposed on young children. Stress negatively affect their brains,” Daranee warned. 

She said the Early Childhood Bill was not impractical, as it would push for the establishment of a policy committee that would determine how schools could recruit students without sitting tough tests. 

 

“We do offer flexibility. But in essence, if this bill is introduced, there will be no gruelling exams for young children,” she said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30342227

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-04-02

[YouYouYou]

Good news and good luck.. But I am doubtful it will pass as pressure to this change will surely rise up from various school bodies. Yes, too many exams that are in my opinion pointless for early learners ...love to see this change.

[Get Real]

One of the best proposals in Thai history. Finally they have the ownership of one professor, that actually know how children respond to stress.

[CelticBhoy]

About time this was looked at.

I would love to see it go through.

[doremifasol]

Great news. I would love to see this happen.

[Lupatria]

Next step: stop the brainwashing to the kids in camouflage outfit in Kindergarten.

[zyphodb]

Great idea, only they should extend it to at least 11 years old, these tests are for the schools to help them grade the students, they do nothing but harm to the kid's education.....

[PatOngo]

1 hour ago, Lupatria said:

Next step: stop the brainwashing to the kids in camouflage outfit in Kindergarten.

But the twelve core principals are paramount the development of the country!

[Langsuan Man]

Now let's get rid of the corrupt school administrators that require the little brown envelopes for school admission 

[JAG]

37 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

But the twelve core principals are paramount the development of the country!

Absolutely, just look at the astonishing progress made since the children started chanting them regularly...

[gwynt]

It is the parents who  cause the pressure 

[Eligius]

This is not just a problem in Thailand; it is probably a world-wide phenomenon: children are being robbed of their childhood by this obsession with tests, tests, tests. When I was a child in London, we did not even have to do ANY homework until we went to secondary school at the age of 11, and we did not have many (serious) tests at primary school. I was allowed to be a child and to enjoy my childhood, free from the tension and stress of 'exams, exams!' Did that harm my educational development? Hardly. I gained top grades in all my later university career (undergraduate and post-graduate) and thus proved that it is unnecessary to cram young children with (often fake) 'learning' and the attendant 'tests'.

 

More important is to develop in children a sense of morality (my God, don't they need that here in Thailand!), compassion, empathy, sympathy with others, helpfulness and kindness - as well as the ability to think rationally and logically. Academic learning need not be rushed and pushed too strongly during the first few years of a child's primary-school life. Those parents who force-feed their children with facts and tests are, in my view, guilty (unwittingly) of a form of child abuse.

 

Life is to be lived (not lost in the permanent fear of 'tests, exams, assessments, tests')  - and a largely carefree early childhood (where one learns how to get on with other people, through play and games, not least) is one of the surest guarantees of a later, balanced, human and happy life.

 

[MaxLee]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

IF THE Early Childhood Bill sails through the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) this year, young children will be able to say goodbye to exams. 

 

only to say hello to Military brainwashing....... 

[Moti24]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

“Human brains have developed the most during our newly-defined early childhood,” Daranee said. “Before the age of eight, children have not yet stepped fully into the world of reality.”

Eight or eighteen!  Is he talking about Thai brains!  Some of the Thais I know in their 30s act like 5 year olds!

 

5 hours ago, webfact said:

To prevent children from unnecessary stress and the loss of self-confidence.....

Now, he's on the right track!

 

5 hours ago, webfact said:

“Those exams are prone to imposing way too much pressure on children....."

Maybe on some students, but the also rans will pass anyway, and they know it, so they don't give a hoot about getting a good grade because they know they'll automatically be given 50%!

 

Getting the Thai teachers to actually teach them something might be a good start.  (Not all Thai teachers fit into that category, some are quite good.  Unfortunately, tarring with the same brush seems to be a worldwide problem; I hope the good teachers aren't dragged under with the dross.)

[geriatrickid]

Wow. It is refreshing to see so many people who get it.  I sustained  enough time in general school and 9 years of post secondary education to appreciate how useless and unproductive the emphasis on exams  was. The stress of taking these tests and exams when I was in primary school was unwarranted and the process was an absolute waste of time and resources.

[Krataiboy]

The bill defines children of early-childhood stage as foetuses through to children aged eight years old – making a big change to the now-used definition of children aged between three and six. 

 

I bet the foetuses will be much relieved not to have to swot. 

[connda]

Nice to see Thailand taking it's first baby steps on the road to Nanny-statism.

[starky]

How much stress can there be in an exam that everybody automatically passes all the way through to university level? Oh the poor kids the trauma of working in a system where no one fails.

[metisdead]

Quote

Got a feeling we are going of topic here, and these posts will be deleted

 

Off topic posts and the replies have been removed:

 

7. Please do not post off-topic responses in an attempt to hijack the thread. Such posts will be deleted. 

[greenchair]

From what I have seen watching my child go through the Thai system, the children don't mind the tests and they are helpful. The ones that fail almost always learn a lesson and do better in future studies. It gives them a goal to strive towards and tangable results. The Thai children in fact enjoy the tutorial schools, they like to be with their friends. Most of the parents ask the child if they want to go to the classes and The children invariably say yes. 

The parents that are pushing for no testing, have failing children that are misbehaved and spoiled. They can't learn and they don't want anyone else to either. They are absolutely venomous when seeing other children achieve through testing. Their kids spend 90 %of time on a telephone and roll up to learning centers near the end of 6th grade expecting a miracle. Then blame the system. 

[greenchair]

It will also open the door for the rich to pay for seats that they often lose to poorer students that have studied hard and fought for their seat in a top school. My son is one of those kids. He would not have got a seat without the testing system. We didn't have the 500000 to buy his way in. 

Edited April 3, 2018 by greenchair