ONESQA says its evaluation takes 5 hours, not 9 days
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- THE OFFICE for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA) yesterday dismissed findings that suggested teachers had to spend nine days a year on ONESQA-related activities.

"It's not true. ONESQA assessments take just three days in five years - or simply put, just five hours a year," ONESQA director Professor Dr Channarong Pornrungroj said.

He was speaking in response to research by the Quality Learning Foundation (QLF) revealing that of 200 school days a year, teachers had spent 84 on non-class activities. According to the study, ONESQA is the agency that takes the highest number of days when it comes to non-class activities.

Channarong said the ONESQA team spent just three days at each evaluated school and each school would undergo just one assessment in five years.

"On the first day, we explain the goal of our assessment. Throughout the three days, we gather information via observation, interviews and document reviews," he said.

Asked whether document preparations for the ONESQA assessments took so much time, Channarong said every school should have internal assessments and that would require such documents anyway.

"It's to ensure quality," Channarong said.

He defended his agency's work, saying that external assessments by ONESQA were crucial in reflecting the quality of education.

He said the mission was important given that Thailand had 38,010 educational institutes, 660,000 teachers/lecturers, and over 13 million students.

Dr Kraiyos Patrawart, who conducts the QLF research, stood by his research findings. He said the information was gathered from 427 teachers via telephone interviews.

"Of those questioned, 63 said they had spent more than 30 days preparing for the ONESQA assessments," he said.

Kraiyos said his research was based on academic principles and the authorities could use its findings to improve their efficiency. "I am ready to provide further explanation on my research findings," he said.

Vice-Education Minister Teerakiat Jaroensettasin said the focus should not be on exactly how many days the ONESQA assessments took from teachers.

"We should address concerns and plight of teachers that are reflected in the research," he said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/ONESQA-says-its-evaluation-takes-5-hours-not-9-day-30252327.html


-- The Nation 2015-01-21

So how long does ONESQA think it takes teachers to prepare the hundreds of documents requited to be shown during the assessment? Surely that is also an extra-curricular activity with nothing with actual in-class teaching. Pardon the pun, but education in this country appears to be secondary to activities and other fun stuff to appease students. There is no surprise kids go to tutorial schools as they don't appear to learn a lot in school.

"It's to ensure quality," Channarong said.

I'm saying nowt. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Many-score-poorly-in-pre-O-NET-exams-30251366.html

They're forgetting to figure in the 2 weeks every term the teachers are all in the conference room preparing the documents for review. God forbid that they would keep their records up on a weekly or even monthly basis!

'Channarong said ... that external assessments by ONESQA were crucial in reflecting the quality of education.' They need to change the mirror, then.

When my school was assessed, I remember the students having a lot of afternoon classes cancelled so that they could clean the school and paint new lines on the roads/parking areas etc. The Thai teachers also had massive amounts of work to do for their assessments, and were constantly complaining about it, although I don't know how many hours they actually required to prepare the documents, but they were complaining for well over a month prior to the assessment.