EXAM TIME: PM worried as students flood-cram schools

New regulations mooted as pupils slam inconsistencies

Anxious students are flooding tutoring centres to prepare for gruelling university entrance exams, a trend that has disturbed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Bangkok’s Siam Square was packed this week with Mathayom 6 (grade 12) students in intensive prep courses for entrance exams starting at the weekend.

As they crammed, Thaksin on Tuesday ordered the Ministry of Education to devise new regulations for the tutorial centres to follow. Thaksin said that it was a “wrong way of thinking” for Thai students to rely on tutorial centres, while neglecting classes at school, said Government Spokesman Jakrapob Penkair.

“That’s partly true,” said Bhumin Laolijirakul, a 19yearold Mathayom 6 student from a school in Bangkok. “Tutorial centres are for entrance exams. School is for maximising your knowledge.”

He said tutors summarise the main points in the exams well, but that did not mean that his school was no good.

“I rely on tutorial classes to be equipped with techniques for the entrance exams,” he said.

Tutorial schools have made their imprint on Thai students for more than three decades since the national university entrance exam process was put in place.

The Ministry of Education is compiling a list of all tutorial centres. To ensure they offer quality programmes, the ministry plans to develop new regulations governing their operations.

But Mathayom 6 student Kittikul Sarnsuwan, 19, urged officials to look at the big picture.

“As long as there is no consistency in our education policy, the tutorial centres will not fade away,” he said. “Don’t think that the students are stupid. They are informed customers who have a lot of choices when it comes to choosing a good tutorial school.”

Entrance exams grill students with difficult questions that demanded specific techniques and teachers at school might not be able to help the students tackle them, he said.

Nattapon Suntirangkul, 17, said classes at both centres and schools were equally important. The tutoring classes are useful as they help students understand more about what they’ve been taught at school.

“Not all students are able to instantly master the knowledge they learn in classes at school,” he said.

Kittikul agreed, saying that new knowledge is dispensed by tutors who might be better than the educators at schools.

“It is good to learn from various sources,” he said.

He said that at first he did not study at tutorial centres but his parents asked him: “Why would you learn from only one teacher?”

Some tutoring centres have earned reputations for presenting material by entertaining the students. Several tutors are famous for their quips, witty encouragement bordering on pressure, and even singing in class.

Suchada Pollawong, 17, said her classes at school were never fun, which adds to students’ stress.

Bhumin, who just finished his Thai and Social Studies tutorials, said that the content of both subjects was difficult.

But if a teacher fails to find ways to encourage students, they will only put forth a minimal effort to pass, instead of studying with passion.

--The Nation 2004-03-04

At least these students do not cheat, unlike certain others:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2223690.stm