Test Scores Must Serve As Wake-Up Call: Thai Chalk Talk

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CHALK TALK

Test scores must serve as wake-up call

Chularat Saengpassa

The Nation

EVERY NOW AND THEN, Thailand's education sector receives some bad news. Thai children's academic achievements in international rankings are rather depressing.

Instead of going up, they have been slipping downwards.

In 1995, the first Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) found that Thai children were doing quite well in science and mathematics. Thai children scored 525 points in the former and 522 points in the latter that year, while the world's average score stood at around 500.

But since then, Thai children's scores have dropped. In 1999, their science and mathematics scores plunged to just 482 and 467 respectively. In 2007, their average scores were 441 in mathematics and 471 in science.

TIMSS reports every four years on the mathematics and science achievement of fourth- and eighth-grade students worldwide. Findings from the survey are used to inform education policy-makers and to improve teaching.

During the past decade, Thai educators and policymakers have experienced a shock through their circles whenever the TIMSS scores are released. But after a few days or perhaps just a bit longer, the ripples through Thailand's education system disappear and everything turns virtually idle again.

No big efforts have been made or sustained to really reverse the trend.

In fact, TIMSS scores clearly show that students at well-equipped schools perform much better than those from schools with limited resources. Children in rural provinces, particularly those in the Northeast, do not receive the same quality of education as their peers in urban zones.

Authorities of course know that many rural schools suffer a severe shortage of teaching staff and that teachers who majored in physical education are being asked to teach mathematics and science. At so many schools in the rural zones, one instructor teaches all the subjects. Some schools have resources and staff for primary-education level only, but must still offer secondary-education classes in response to the government's policy to make secondary education mandatory for all children.

Comprehensive access to educational services is important, but the government should realise that the quality of educational services is no less important.

Pornpun Waitayangkoon, who heads the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology (IPST), said all available indicators had identified where the problems lie. "There's no need to conduct new research. The government can formulate policies based on these indicators," she said.

She believed the government should start pouring more resources into small schools in the Northeast now.

"We must not allow the gap between well-equipped schools and the poor schools to widen further," Pornpun said. She also demanded that exams in Thailand's education system place emphasis on analytical thinking.

"If we don't make changes, we will get bad news every time international rankings about academic performances are released," she said. "The international focus is now on the ability to analyse."

According to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), 15-year-old Thais have rather poor reading skills. Of this group, 42.8 per cent know how to read but cannot summarise the content. About 37 per cent can give summaries only when the content is easy to read.

According to the 2009 PISA, just 0.3 per cent of Thai children have reached reading proficiency Level 5 or have the ability to fully understand a text whose form and content is unfamiliar.

"The poor PISA scores have affected Thailand's competitiveness," Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) deputy |secretary-general Benjalak Namfa said.

Obec, she said, is planning several measures to improve Thai children's performances in the PISA ranking through the development of better teachers.

For example, Obec is considering awarding higher academic ranks and better pay to teachers when their students score well on the Ordinary National Educational Test (Onet). If the students' Onet scores are higher, they will very likely get better scores in the TIMSS and PISA too.

Indeed, Thailand should learn from the many countries that have already successfully used the TIMSS findings. Germany, for example, has already gone a long way from where it started with its 1995 TIMSS scores.

German children performed below average in mathematics in 1995, creating "the TIMSS Shock" in their country.

In response to this shock, authorities adjusted their policies and developed measures to improve German students' performance. Germany's efforts paid off, with students' performances on international tests improving, according to Eckhard Klieme, a professor of education at the German Institute of International Educational Research.

Now, let's hope that when the 2012 TIMSS results are released later this month, the shock waves will lead to real efforts to improve Thailand's education system in a sustainable way.

TIMSS, PISA and the like are indicators to help policymakers shape useful policies. Thailand needs to make good use of them.

CHULARAT SAENGPASSA

-- The Nation 2012-12-03

[Rykbanlor]

If they want children to think analytically they have to teach them as such, which they do not. And its little surprise the reading levels are so poor, as the thai language reading curriculum is archaiac, everyone reads the same books that seem to have been around for a century, they do nothing to foster a broad range of reading skills, and students are not pressed to read any other books in these classes.

The day the Thai system relinquishes it's obsession with testing and test scores will be the day things might improve. They are so caught up in having to prepare for tests and other fatuous pursuits such as cheerleading that there is no time for a decent education.

[Soi Dog]

Only when the Education portfolio is taken seriously and not as just another source of revenue for politicians (of BOTH parties), will this ever change. The same can be said of most other ministries but this one is affecting the future of our children and is beyond scandalous.

[Soi Sauce]

We don't need no education,

we only need our thoughts controlled.

originality banned from classrooms,

We have to keep the status quo.

Imagine how bad it would be for all sides of the 2 elites, red and yellow, if their hoi poloi could think and reason. They'd be in jail in days.

No chance of it happening then.

[cup-O-coffee]

Or,...

Stupid kids come from stupid parents or guardians. They grow up to be stupid directors and teachers. Stupid people only think about themselves, as is reflected in the individuals illustrated above, who wonder why other people are stupid, and not themselves instead. Stupidity breeds stupidity. The problem is that stupid people think more highly of themselves than reality suggests to their dormant senses.

A growing body of psychology research shows that incompetence deprives people of the ability to recognize their own incompetence. To put it bluntly, dumb people are too dumb to know it. Similarly, unfunny people don't have a good enough sense of humor to tell.

We will continue to be subjected to articles on how Thais are shocked at, and wonder about, and "mull" over, why their very little society is not as perfect as they like to imagine.

[phuketguyhere74]

If they want children to think analytically they have to teach them as such, which they do not. And its little surprise the reading levels are so poor, as the thai language reading curriculum is archaiac, everyone reads the same books that seem to have been around for a century, they do nothing to foster a broad range of reading skills, and students are not pressed to read any other books in these classes.

The day the Thai system relinquishes it's obsession with testing and test scores will be the day things might improve. They are so caught up in having to prepare for tests and other fatuous pursuits such as cheerleading that there is no time for a decent education.

As long as

-cheating is allowed and there are no consequences for doing so,

-teachers' pay is ridiculously low,

-people who have never even taught are administrators,

-the only thing a school cares about is the scores and the perception of the school

-the school is more occupied with every other holiday and practicing a dance routine or singing all day and the kids are not in class,

-a school's only priority is selling things and making money somehow,

-non-qualified teachers are allowed to teach,

-the gov or the school do not allocate funds for such everyday teacher-needs, such as copying, printing, staplers, paper, writing materials, etc, ......

-schools are ran as businesses and not as schools,

-teachers have no classroom management,.....

As long as all these things continue, Thailand will have sub par schools that will continue to decline. The bottom line here is that the people in control and who can do things to make changes, do not care about the children, the future, or anything else about education, but we all know they care about their own salaries.

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Education won't improve until schools move away from no kid being able to fail. Tests are for the most part pointless, making the system as a whole largely pointless. They also test kids from a very young age, which I don't think is all that beneficial

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[rics21]

This tells us to send our kids to the international or bilingual schools. Put more effort in their studies, buy them a encyclopedia set instead of an iPad.

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[Lopburikid]

I've been teaching in Thailand for about 20 years now. In that time I haven't seen any change as to how the students are taught.

School day: class starts at 0830,teacher enters the room,students stand up and say good morning teacher, students sit down,teacher writes on the board.

students copy from the board, teacher recites from the board.students repeat,students stand up and say thankyou teacher, teacher leaves the classroom,class finished. Day in day out, The students are given no incentive to ask questions,search for information.