Intake Of Pupils Declines: Thailand

[webfact]

Intake of pupils declines
Supinda na Mahachai
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Many of the 200 most popular schools are recruiting fewer Mathayom 1 students this year in response to the Basic Education Commission's policy to allow more students to continue on to Mathayom 4 at the same school.

Last year, some students of the elite Bodin Decha School staged a protest against the administration's refusal to allow them to pursue their studies at the senior secondary level at the school.

The demonstrations made headlines and prompted the intervention of top officials. Secondary schools now have to try and let as many of their students as possible stay at the same place.

"To be eligible to enrol at the same old school, Mathayom 3 graduates must have a cumulative grade-point average of at least 2.00 for the past five semesters," secretary-general Chinnapat Bhumirat said yesterday.

In Bangkok, 26 popular schools now offer just 24,885 places for the Mathayom 1 class this year versus 26,802 last year.

Mathayom 1 seats at Suankularb Wittayalai School have been cut to just 400 from 544, at Satriwittaya School to 350 from 500 and at Sarawittaya School to 602 from 502.

Applications for all schools under the commission's supervision will open from this Thursday to March 18. Students have been advised to apply to schools near their homes rather than pin their hopes on popular schools.


-- The Nation 2013-03-11

[horsewell]

This probably just means that the less popular schools have more places. Hardly seems news worthy, really.

[CaptainSplod]

.........and at Sarawittaya School to 602 from 502.

Well, then - Sarawittaya School's the obvious place to look, seeing as the number of places there has apparently increased.....

[aussiebebe]

Can anyone explain the Thai system to me - why do most schools only go until M3? thanks

[bkk_mike]

Isn't this just effectively saying that, because they now can't throw students out after 3 years, that they're having to set their intake levels for 1st year at the numbers that they actually have places for in 4th year.

It must have been very easy to be high in the school rankings if you drop your bottom 10% of students after 3 years so that they're no longer in the school when it's exam time..

[Locationthailand]

Another article that seems pointless.

[aidenai]

Can anyone explain the Thai system to me - why do most schools only go until M3? thanks

Secondary education in Thailand is divided into Junior High School, M1-M3 and and High School, M4-M6 since at least 1999. Most schools provide M1-M6 but since 2010 the MOE decided that M3 students have to do an entrance exam for M4-M6, even at the same school. When the results are below standard, the students have to seek for another school. I think that's a good thing.

The article posted is ambiguous. The story is that the entrance exams for M1-M3 have become more difficult to ensure that the students are good enough and will stay good enough to enroll M4-M6 at the same school.

Edited March 12, 2013 by aidenai