Thai Education Ministry admits A-Net test too difficult

[Chongalulu]

The levels of numeracy are apalling also. I met a college educated woman who arrogantly feels she is very highly educated who told me she'd bought a motorcycle for 50,000 baht and was paying it off in one year with 6000 baht interest. 5 seconds mental arithmetic on my part and I said " but that's 12% which is very high " . She was completely flummoxed!

I'm so glad I brought my non English speaking Thai stepdaughter over to the uk when she was 9. Now 21 she's studying Economics at a good uk university with 3 A levels behind her including Maths and English. Given that I now realise her education up to that point was virtually useless I'm only now beginning to understand the true level of her achievements.

A poor education is in my view probably the most egregious form of child abuse

[DavisH]

The levels of numeracy are apalling also. I met a college educated woman who arrogantly feels she is very highly educated who told me she'd bought a motorcycle for 50,000 baht and was paying it off in one year with 6000 baht interest. 5 seconds mental arithmetic on my part and I said " but that's 12% which is very high " . She was completely flummoxed!

I'm so glad I brought my non English speaking Thai stepdaughter over to the uk when she was 9. Now 21 she's studying Economics at a good uk university with 3 A levels behind her including Maths and English. Given that I now realise her education up to that point was virtually useless I'm only now beginning to understand the true level of her achievements.

A poor education is in my view probably the most egregious form of child abuse

Maybe so, but most Thais don't have access to the education systems of the West. They have to do the best with what they have. Good for you and your daughter.

[BruceMangosteen]

"the test results which show most of the students scored poorly – between 20-30 out of 100 – on eight out of nine subjects could not be used as a measurement of the quality of education of Thai"

if they design a multiple choice question paper, with 4 possible answers, then surely ticking a random box on each question ought to average 25 per cent success minimum???

I think the better idea would be to select all "D" as "D" seems to be the most popular answer on Thai tests. If you make random choices while it seems you might get 25% I just have my doubts, I'd have to look at the old statistic textbooks packed away some place.

EDIT: Upon a quick reflection, one would assume the test taker knows at least ten percent of the answers. So he/she can then decide how to answer the other 90 percent to achieve a correct rate of 25% of same. Combining the 10 percent known correct with 25 percent of 90 percent and you get to what has to be above 30 percent don't you? (need a math person to answer)

Edited February 14, 2016 by BruceMangosteen

[BruceMangosteen]

Which also reminds me....I wasn't such a fool as to take the tests prepared by the same folks outlined here for foreigners. Can you imagine the horror and dismay? I saw a guy try and get some words in at a "Culture Course" and he was put quickly in his place being told to basically sit down and shut up. Back to singing and dancing. He asked at one point "do they even read the questions and answers?".

[Martied]

Believe it or not, some Thai teachers understand how bad it is. One older Thai teacher told me that the entire system should be 'chopped down' and a new system planted. But teachers cannot do much as they are at the mercy of administration and we all know how administration operates and why.

[attrayant]

"the test results which show most of the students scored poorly – between 20-30 out of 100 – on eight out of nine subjects could not be used as a measurement of the quality of education of Thai"

if they design a multiple choice question paper, with 4 possible answers, then surely ticking a random box on each question ought to average 25 per cent success minimum???

Multiple guess exam questions should be weighted to help reduce the significance of random-answer guessing. For example, the first ten correct answers are worth a quarter of a point, the next ten worth a half point, and so on. So when you get 25% of the questions correct from randomly guessing, your final weighted score might only be a 10.